Dillon and Mooney see Loreto through in MacLarnon

Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup Round 2 Eliminators

Loreto Coleraine 3-11 Aquinas Grammar 2-9

LORETO Coleraine are through to a Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup quarter-final meeting with Our Lady’s and St Patrick’s Knock after taking out Aquinas Grammar in yesterday’s Round 2 Eliminator in Cherryvale.
Aquinas got off to a great start with a penalty award after just two minutes. Leo Passmore in the Coleraine nets saved but the rebound fell handy for place-kicker Feargal O’Kane to tuck away.
Although Fionn Nagle extended that lead with a point from a free in the 8th minute, Loreto grew into the game and points from Ben Dillon (two frees), Dara Mooney (from play and a free) and Cillian Calvert took the teams to parity just before the break when Daniel Connor’s shot off an upright split the teams at the break.
Mooney and Conor McKeever exchanged points on the re-start before Lorcan McMullan cut past two defenders on the left wing and hit the top corner to put Coleraine firmly in charge of the game.
Aquinas kept responding to Loreto scores from then until the end, but they didn’t look like catching Loreto despite three excellent scores from Ethan McGrath.
At the other end, Ben Dillon used his pace to pick off two point from runs on each wing, added two frees and then converted a 53rd minute penalty.
Right from the kick-out Caleb Smith off-loaded to Eamon Swail who cut in from the right wing to fire under Passmore and Fionn Nagle added a free to close the gap in injury-time.
However Dara Mooney caught Passmore’s kick-out, played a neat one-two with sub Conn Kilmartin and ran straight at the Aquinas goal before off-loading for Dillon to palm home.
Aquinas were a dogged opponent although they gave away a couple of soft scores in the first half to get Loreto into the game, but Conor Curran, Patrick Donaldson, Conor McKeever and Caleb Smith worked well throughout with Ethan McGrath;s accuracy keeping them going in the second half.
Dillon and Mooney were very dangerous up front for Loreto with Odhrán McLarnon doing a lot of the donkey work, while the defence kept their shape and discipline throughout.
Loreto : Ben Dillon (2-5, 1-0 pen, 0-4 frees), Lorcan mcMullen (1-0), Dara Mooney (0-3, 0-1 free), Cillian Calvert (0-1), Leo Passmore (0-1 free).
Aquinas : Feargal O’Kane (1-0 pen), Eamon Swail (1-0), Ethan McGrath (0-3), Fionn Nagle (0-3, 0-2 frees), Patrick Donaldson (0-1), Conor McKeever (0-1), Daniel Connor (0-1).