Omagh and Cavan reach Brock decider

Danske Bank Brock Cup semi-final
St Patrick’s Cavan 2-16 St Patrick’s Maghera 0-6
LAST season’s Danske Bank Corn na nÓg champions St Patrick’s Cavan are shaping up well to eclipse this season’s Brock Cup after they pulled away after the break in this semi-final in Garvaghey with their Maghera namesakes.
In a competent team performance, Adam Butt, Caolan Smith and Kevin Lovett stood out in defence, while Ethan Coyle and Philip Smyth were impressive in midfield and Conor Casey and Emmanuel Shehu elusive up front.
By contrast Maghera couldn’t exercise the same influence on exchanges and after the two goals they were very much pinned back into their own half of the pitch.
Nevertheless the opening half was fairly tight, although Cavan went into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead after 20 minutes aided by the slight breeze. But Michael Mulholland from a free and well worked Peter McCullagh effort from play reduced the margin to a single score only for Conor Casey to make it 0-5 to 0-3 on the stroke of half-time.
Opening moments of second half decide game. Mark McDermott got his fist to a high lob into the area after 90 seconds and before Maghera could recover, Conor Casey worked the ball along the end-line, opened an angle and rolled ball home.
Although frees from Jody McDermott and Michael Mulholland reduced the deficit, Cavan powered away over the next ten minutes, defending well in numbers and breaking out with real power and pace to fire seven points without and finish the game with a couple from Casey, same from Shehu and singles from Ben Monaghan, Kevin and Darragh Lovett.
Conor Casey 1-3, Mark McDermott 1-1, Emmanuel Shehu 0-5, 0-3 frees, Ben Monaghan 0-2, Kevin Lovett 0-2, James McBreen 0-1, Darragh Lovett 0-1, Ethan Coyle 0-1
Maghera : Michael Mulholland 0-2 frees, Cathal Chambers 0-1, Peter McCullagh 0-1, Jody McDermott 0-1 free, Raymond Dillon 0-1

Danske Bank Brock Cup semi-final
Omagh CBS 4-12 St Colman’s Newry 1-9
OMAGH CBS powered their way past St Colman’s Newry during the second half of yesterday’s Danske Bank Brock Cup semi-final in Pearse Óg GAA grounds in Armagh.
The opening half was evenly-balanced and the Newry side could count themselves a little unlucky to be 2-4 to 0-6 adrift at the short whistle. However during the second half they had no answer to the accuracy of Conor McGillian and Sean O’Donnell from placed balls and Patrick Corcoran, Bliain Feeney and Alex McGlinchey driving forward in general play.
Four frees from Dara O’Neill kept St Colman’s in touch during the opening period, but they were knocked back by two goals from Dara Hayes, one that seemed to bounce awkwardly off a defender and over the goal-line.
Despite a goal from James Duggan at the end of the third quarter, St Colman’s struggled to deal with the pressure from Omagh and James King and Thomas Hardy ended up fire-fighting in different areas of defence with Donal Scullion trying to provide a link in the forward line.
Patrick Corcoran and Alex McGlinchey fired home second half goals to secure passage to the final for Omagh where they will face a St Patrick’s Cavan side that was equally impressive in disposing of St Patrick’s Maghera in the other semi-final at the weekend.
Omagh : Dara Hayes 2-0, Alex McGlinchey 1-1, Patrick Corcoran 1-1, Conor McGillion 0-4 frees, Sean O’Donnell 0-3 frees, Oisin Gormley 0-2, Conor Owens 0-1
St Colman’s : James Duggan 1-0, Dara O’Neill 0-6 frees, Donal Scullion 0-2, Michael Murtagh 0-1.

Picture : St patrick’s Cavan celebrate their Corn na nÓg success last year