![Oisin Boyle [left] of St Marys CBGS, Belfast and Sean McDermott of St Louis', Ballymena](https://www.irishnews.com/resizer/v2/5AKIPROZX5BCDIE33KYW4OVVVQ.jpg?smart=true&auth=2ad625782841cc5d131f8e4ac298574e30d4170c8c06f4df59b00d364bcefb25&width=4043&height=2274)
Danske Bank Mageean Cup Group A, round three St Mary’s CBGS, Belfast 1-11 St Louis’, Ballymena 0-20
ST Louis’, Ballymena secured top spot in the group and a semi-final place with a six-point win over St Mary’s at Pairc Rossa yesterday.
The Belfast side were first off the mark courtesy of a Sean Óg McLaren free, but Ballymena drew level through a Fiontan Bradley point.
Midfielder Jack Martin (2) and Bradley put St Louis’ three ahead before Caleb Smith and Shea Burns traded scores.
Further points were traded by Martin and Daire Jemfrey and a third point from Bradley had his side 0-7 to 0-3 ahead.
An angled Odhran Donnelly point lifted the Glen Road outfit and McLaren blasted over his second free to halve the deficit.
Approaching the midway point in the half, just a single point separated the sides but it was all one-way traffic approaching the break as St Louis’ reeled off seven scores without reply. Three of those were placed balls from Bradley, who added a further one from play. Jack Martin conjured up his fourth of the half, but the pick of the scores was an excellent Sean McDermott effort that left the score 0-15 to 0-7 at the interval.
Despite a positive opening to the second period, St. Mary’s found themselves further in arrears when Martin and Bradley (free) popped over. In response, Jemfrey saw his angled shot sneak between the large posts and substitute Mick Marlow flashed a shot over.
Jemfrey was then unfortunate to see a goal-bound shot drift wide of the net as Martin and Bradley added to their personal tallies to give St Louis’ a 0-19 to 0-9 lead with a quarter of an hour remaining.
McLaren dropped over a fine point, his first from play, before Brendan McMorrow sent another over. St Mary’s gave themselves a small glimmer going into the closing minutes when Jude Collins’ shot was parried by the stick of goalkeeper Caolan McFerran and his attempted clearance was charged down and flicked home by McLarnon to reduce the deficit to five.
A late point from Caolan McCollum finished the scoring, leaving St Mary’s facing Gaelcholáiste Dhoire next week needing a victory to secure a quarter-final spot.
St Mary’s S Óg McLarnon 1-3 (0-2f); D Jemfrey 0-2; S Burns, O Donnelly, C Walsh, N May, M Marlow & B McMorrow 0-1 each
St Louis’ F Bradley 0-11 (0-5f, 0-1x65); J Martin 0-6; S McDermott, C Smith & C McCollum 0-1 each
