Rafferty wins for St Pius X and Dean Maguirc

Danske Bank Rafferty Cup semi-final:
St Pius X Magherafelt 2-12 Holy Trinity Cookstown 0-7
IN THE end it seemed to be an easy enough passage for St Pius X Magherafelt into the Danske Bank Rafferty Cup final. But appearances can be deceptive and at times they struggled to contain the holders Holy Trinity who were unlucky with their shooting in both halves.
Early points from Shea Quinn, Shea Lawn and Liam Ryan put Cookstown into a 0-3 to 0-1 lead and but for a couple of exceptional saves from Calum Healy the Holy Trinity lead could have been greater.
However as the first half wore on Charlie Crozier and Michael Forbes came more into the frame at midfield and managed to turn the tide so that St Pius X went in at the break with a 0-7 to 0-4 lead with Darragh Wade and Aaron Donnelly in excellent shooting form.
Calum Healy again denied a promising Cookstown move at the start of the second half and Darragh Wade got on the end of the break downfield to score a fine goal that gave his side a six points’ cushion. They were able to defend that lead with good work from Matthew Rocks at centre half and Ryan Laverty at full back.
Gerard Fullen fired home the second goal in injury time to ice the cake and send Magherafelt side into next week’s final on a high.
St Pius X : Darragh Wade 1-4, Gerard Fullen 1-0, Aaron Donnelly 0-6, Caolan McCann 0-2, Joey Devlin 0-2
Holy Trinity : Shea Quinn 0-3, Shea Lawn 0-2, Liam Ryan 0-1, Pascal McClure 0-1.

Danske Bank Rafferty Cup semi-final
Dean Maguirc College Carrickmore 2-11 St Patrick’s Keady 0-6
A PENALTY strike from Sean Connealey 12 minutes into this Danske Bank Rafferty Cup semi-final at the Moy yesterday set Dean Maguirc College on their way to a spot in the final.
Back-boned by seven of the local club team that has qualified for the final of the Paul McGirr tournament, Carrickmore were playing with the wind and that goal opened a gap that widened to 2-7 to 0-4 at the break.
The second goal came in the 25th minute from a free-flowing length of the pitch movement. However the initial shot for goal was parried into the path of Zach Devine and he hammered it to the net.
The second half from the Tyrone school’s point of view was all about containment and they managed that although Keady will be disappointed that they didn’t pick off several free-kicks early in the half to close the gap.
Despite that Jamie Taylor, Eoin Grimley and James O’Hara tried hard, but were thwarted by a well-organised Carrickmore outfit for whom Sean Connealey was the star man.
Dean Maguric : Sean Connealey 1-6, 1-0 pen., 0-1 free, Zach Devine 1-0, Lorcan McGarrity 0-3, 0-2 frees, Mícheál McCann 0-1, Conor Cuddy 0-1.
St Patrick’s : Eoin Grimley 0-3, 0-2 frees, James O’Hara 0-2, Conor Rafferty 0-2.