St Louis into MacNamee final with St Killian’s

Danske Bank MacNamee Cup semi-final

St Louis Ballymena 7-5 Cross & Passion Ballycastle 1-2

St Louis Ballymena set up a derby final with St Killian’s Garron Tower in the Danske Bank MacNamee Cup yesterday by defeating another north Antrim school Cross & Passion Ballycastle in Cloughmills yesterday.

In difficult enough conditions St Louis dominated the semi-final but found CPC’s defence hard to break down, despite opening with a goal from the excellent Ronan McCollum after three minutes’ play.

However a second quarter hat-trick of goals from JackMcCloskey helped put a bit of daylight between the teams before the break. Indeed defender Tony McCann followed a ball through just before half-time to score his side’s fifth goal – and still no points from either side.

Jack McCloskey hit a screamer of a goal on the re-start before Tiago McGarry eventually opened Ballycastle’s account with the first point of the game.

A few minutes later Ronan McCollam fired home directly from a free for Ballymena’s seventh goal. Conal Elliott responded with a point and then played a short free to Tiago McGarry for a Ballycaslte goal.

However St Louis finished strongly with five points in a row to comfortably make the final.

St Louis : C McQuillan, N McIlhatton, M Traynor, T McCann 1-0, C Gormley, A McGarry, C Patterson 0-1, O McCamphill 0-2, K O’Boyle, P Patterson, R McCollam 2-0, T McFerran 0-2, D Martin, J McCloskey 4-0, C Duffin.

Cross & Passion : E Richmond, R McLoughlin, S Mathers, S McKay, T McGarry 1-1, B McGarry, C Donnelly, L Walker, O Donnelly, C Sheridan, D Kelly, C Elliott 0-1, E McGarry, C McGarry, A Hamilton.