Danske Bank MacFarlane Cup final (hurling)
St Mary’s, Magherafelt 4-11 St Patrick’s, Keady 3-11
ST Mary’s, Magherafelt are the new Danske Bank MacFarlane Cup champions after a hectic final against St Patrick’s, Keady which finished with the south Derry side hitting 1-3 in the last six minutes to clinch victory.
An early goal from Keady’s Sé McConnell set the tone for the game, with the lead changing hands a few times during the first half before St Mary’s went in at half-time with a three-point lead, 2-5 to 1-5.
Michael Kearney grabbed their first goal before Keady re-took the lead with McConnell, Eoghan Mallon and Caoimhín Mone pressing them forward.
However, a late Conor O’Kane goal was the difference between the teams at half-time and that was stretched with a goal on the re-start from Sean Birt.
Nevertheless, by the midway point of the second half the Armagh side were two points ahead, helped in no small way by two goals from Shea McCloskey.
Keady had chances to seal the issue before Magherafelt hit form in the last few minutes with a fourth goal from Conan Devlin and points from free-taker Ronan Colgan and Sean Birt kept them on the front foot.
Scorers
St Mary’s C O’Kane and S Birt 1-2 each, M Kearney 1-1, C Devlin 1-0, R Colgan 0-6
St Patrick’s S McCloskey 2-2, S McConnell 1-3, E Mallon 0-4, C Mone 0-3
St Clare Cup semi-final (camogie)
St Patrick’s, Maghera 3-16 Cross & Passion, Ballycastle 1-10
HOLDERS St Patrick’s, Maghera stormed into next week’s St Clare Cup final with a comfortable victory over Cross & Passion, Ballycastle in Ballymena yesterday afternoon.
CPC got a decent start and led by 0-4 to 0-3 at the end of the first quarter with three scores from Clíodhna Thompson and an opener from Tegan Cassidy.
However, Maghera then hit them with three goals in the space of five minutes from Caoimhe Roche and a brace from Gracie Diamond.
From then on, Maghera were in control and Éadaoin Bradley, Roche and Diamond tagged on points for an interval lead of 3-6 to 0-4.
Caoimhe McShane hit back with a goal early in the second half and Tegan Cassidy added three points to close the gap slightly at 3-10 to 1-8 at the end of the third quarter.
But St Patrick’s finished strongly with six of the last eight points, despite a huge performance from Ceala Casey and Caoimhe McGarry.
The second semi-final is on Friday afternoon in Bellaghy when St Mary’s, Magherafelt are favoured to beat St Louis, Ballymena.
St Mary’s topped the group after the round-robin games over the last two months with Eva Forbes a towering presence at centre-forward.
Scorers
St Patrick’s G Diamond 2-3, C Roche 1-2, E Bradley 0-4, E Diamond and R Quinn 0-2 each, E Scullion and R McNally 0-1 each.
CPC C McShane 1-0, T Cassidy 0-6, C Thompson 0-3, R McMullan 0-1
MAGHERA and Cross & Passion are set to meet again on Friday afternoon in Ballymena in the Danske Bank Gallagher Cup (hurling) semi-final, with St Mary’s CBGS, Belfast already through to next week’s final.
