Woods and Burns grab late winners for Patrician in MacRory

Danske Bank MacRory Cup quarter-final play-off
Patrician High Carrickmacross 0-11 St Ciaran’s Ballygawley 1-7
Patrician High Carrickmacross scored the last three points to eclipse a Darragh Canavan-inspired St Ciaran’s Ballygawley in an edge-of-the-seat Danske Bank MacRory Cup quarter-final play-off at Inniskeen at the weekend.
When Canavan scored his sixth point in the 55th minute to push St Ciarán’s into a 1-7 to 0-8 lead, the writing looked to be on the wall for the Monaghan school that had dumped St Patrick’s Maghera out of the competition this time last year.
Patrician though pressed the kick-outs in the last five minutes and two extra of added time and that created enough scoring chances to get them a result.
Andrew Woods closed the gap with his fourth point and then Sean Burns levelled in the 58th minute from a free, also his fourth point of the night. Woods then fired over a lead point and, despite a late pressure free conceded that Canavan swung narrowly wide, Carrick held on to book a place in the quarter-finals proper against back-to-back Danske Bank MacCormack Cup champions St Ronan’s Lurgan.
Patrician looked the better team for most of the first half, establishing a 0-6 to 0-2 lead with two points each for Woods and Burns, before Canavan closed the gap with three frees in the five minutes up to the break.
The Errigal Ciarán youngster got the crowd to their feet in the 34th minute when he received a pass from the corner flag, danced around two defenders and coolly side-footed the ball to the net with his left foot for a 1-5 to 0-6 lead.
He added a 39th minute free – but Patrician were always threatening and Ciaran McKenna brought off a wonderful stop from Burns in the 45th minute.
Eventually Burns got Patrician going again in the 47th minute and Woods quickly added another, before that exciting finale saw the Monaghan boys edge home.
Patrician: R Farrelly, F O’Callaghan, S Kindlon, C Hanratty, T McCourt, K Slavin, C McKeown, N Marron, K Curtis, S Burns 0-4, 0-3 frees, A Woods 0-5, C McNulty 0-1, B Kieran 0-1, J Morris, R Grimes.
Subs J Doogan for C McKeown (5), J McGarrell for K Curtis (60), J McMahon for C Hanratty (60).
St Ciarán’s : Ciaran McKenna, Cormac Quinn, Conor Quinn, M Lennon, P McCaughey, Cathair Quinn, M Owens, J Oguz, P McNelis, J McMenamin, D Canavan 1-6, 0-6 frees, E Neill 0-1, C Martin, T Hoy, J Doyle
Subs: N McElvogue for P McCaughey, D Millar for E Neill, B Quinn for M Owens
Referee : Kevin Faloon (Down).