Ballybay & Cootehill through in O’Doherty

Danske Bank O’Doherty Cup quarter-finals
St Aidan’s Cootehill 2-15 St Conor’s Clady/Kilrea 0-9
Ballybay CC 3-8 Dean Maguirc Carrickmore 0-9
GOALS win game is a well-worn adage, but it came true once more in both Danske Bank O’Doherty Cup quarter-finals yesterday.
In Garvaghey Ballybay goals were key to seeing them through to a semi-final pairing with Moville CC at the end of January.
Dean Maguirc College Carrickmore played the better football in the opening half but were hamstrung by goals in the 9th and 14th minutes that put Ballybay ahead by 2-4 to 0-9 at the break.
The first goal came from the boot of centre-half back Eoin Duffy, while full-forward Dara Dempsey picked off the second. Both were key players for the Monaghan side, along with corner-back Enda McPhillips and wing forward Aaron Mulligan.
Dean Maguirc depended a lot on Diarmuid Gallagher and Stephen Grogan for scores, but there were also good performances from Odhrán Toal, Micheal McCann, John Rafferty and Ryan Gumley, although as the game wore on Ballybay’s team-play impressed.
Gallagher and Grogan hit four points each in the opening half, but Ballybay struck for home with the first score of the second half, a goal in the 31st minute from Joel Wilson. Now with a four point lead, the Monaghan side was able to control the rest of the game despite another two points each from the Carrickmore duo.
An early goal from Cian Farrelly, St Aidan’s Cootehill’s star man in Brockagh, put them in control of the other quarter-final yesterday against St Conor’s Clady/Kilrea and they pulled away to win fairly comfortably in the end.
Cootehill scored a second goal through Caolan Jackson midway through their wind-assisted opening half and they led by 2-8 to 0-4 at the turnover.
St Conor’s fought hard especially during the third quarter, but were out of luck; one effort came off the bar after 35 minutes, a couple of others were cleared off the line by goalie Alan Murray and a 45th minute goal was disallowed.
Had there been a different outcome to a couple of those, they might have made St Aidan’s sweat a little, but with their goal-scorers, Farrelly and Jackson, always a threat, backed up by hard work from Ryan Lynch, DJ Cassidy and Oisin Doyle, the Cavan side are through to face the winner of next Wednesday’s clash of holders Coláiste Ailigh Letterkenny and Lumen Christi from Derry in O’Donnell Park Letterkenny.
Ballybay : Dara Dempsey 1-2, Eoin Duffy 1-1, Joel Wilson 1-0, Aaron Mulligan 0-4, 0-2 frees, Shane Slevin 0-1
Dean Maguirc : Diarmuid Gallagher 0-6, 0-4 frees, Stephen Grogan 0-6, 0-2 frees, Patrick Quinn 0-1
St Aidan’s : Caolan Jackson 1-5, Cian Farrelly 1-2, Cian Smith 0-4, Donal Keapock 0-2, Philip McCabe 0-1, Cian Tully 0-1.
St Conor’s : Kevin Mullan 0-4, Jack McAleese 0-3, Odhran Canning 0-1 Conor Mullan 0-1