College wins Newry derby

St Colman’s Newry 0-11 Abbey CBS 1-6
THIS MacRory Cup Newry derby in Páirc Esler looked to be running to the form-book when St Colman’s took a lead of 0-7 to 0-3 into the break.
However any complacency was knocked out of them when Abbey fired home 1-2 without reply on the re-start and it was a real battle to the wire as St Colman’s endeavoured to break down their opponents’ tight defensive structure.
Pearse Loughran had opened the scoring for Abbey and it was still only a point each after the first quarter, before the excellent Eamon Brown sent over two frees for the College. Although Tomas Hamill and Sean Rock pulled the Abbey back level, Brown scored three points in a row to create double scores lead for St Colman’s at 0-6 to 0-3.
It took just two minutes of the second half for Abbey to go 1-5 to 0-7 ahead and 25 seconds for the goal to arrive when sub Eoin Carr’s harmless-looking bouncing ball caught everyone out and ended in the net. Hamill then quickly added two points.
Although Thomas Close replied with a free, Abbey had an opening for a second goal soon after, but Darragh Kelly’s shot was weak and easily saved by Cotter.
Then over the final quarter, the College wore the Abbey defence down with scores from Patrick Brooks, Brown’s fifth free, Andrew Gilmore and substitute Cian McLoughlin and only a Daire O’Callaghan pointed free in reply on the 48th minute.
St Colman’s can now look ahead to a quarter-final play-off game at the end of January while Abbey will meet St Mary’s Magherafelt in their elimination game next week.
St Colman’s: Eamon Brown (0-6, 0-5 frees), Thomas Close (0-2 frees), Andrew Gilmore (0-1), Cian McLoughlin (0-1), Patrick Brooks (0-1), Ryan Cunningham (0-1)
Abbey : Eoin Carr (1-0), Tomas Hamill (0-3), Dara O’Callaghan (0-1 free), Pearse Loughran (0-1), Sean Rock (0-1)