St Mary’s Magherafelt power into All-Ireland Colleges Final
All-Ireland Colleges’ Senior A camogie semi-final :
St Mary’s Magherafelt 3-9 St Flannan’s Ennis 1-5
The last time St Mary’s Magherafelt reached the All-Ireland Colleges’ Senior camogie final, they won it. That was 7 years ago – a school generation.
The new generation at the “Convent” laid down a serious marker of their intent to re-claim that crown by steam-rolling Munster champions St Flannan’s Ennis in the second half of this semi-final in Ballinascreen on Saturday.
After Nicole Clerkin had fired over just before the break, St Mary’s were tied with the visiting Munster champions on 0-3 each.
But the game looked to be changing when Aoife Keane played a long ball out of defence and Amile Wiley fired to the Magherafelt net.
However St Mary’s didn’t allow their opponents to kick on. They settled down again and goals from Jackie Donnelly in the 36 th and 41 st minutes galvanised the Derry side.
They now had the upper-hand and points followed from Una McCoy, Eimear McGuigan and captain Aine McAllister before McGuigan’s superb finish to the net in the 54 th minute ended the contest.
The other semi-final between Portumna CS and Presentation Kilkenny fell victim to the weather and will be re-fixed for this coming Saturday.
St Mary’s : U McKeown, M Kearns, M Diamond, A Mulholland, F Burke, R Bradley, N Conway, A McAllister 0-3, U McCoy 0-1, N Clerkin 0-2, K McLeod, C McAuley, E McGuigan 1-2, J Donnelly 2-1, R Cassidy.
St Flannan’s : D Murphy, T O’Keefe, S Quinn, R Wall, C Devitt, A Malone, Laura Browne, Louise Browne, C Browne, A Keane, O Devitt 0-3, L Touhy, A O’Keefe, A Wiley 1-2, L McGuane.
All-Ireland Colleges’ Senior B camogie semi-finals :
St Killian’s GarronTower 1-4 Our Lady’s Templemore 2-5
A huge effort from St Killian’s GarronTower to reach the All-Ireland Colleges’ Senior B camogie final came up just short on an immaculate Armoy surface on Saturday.
Just the break of the ball on a couple of occasions probably cost them a place in the decider next month.
There were the two goal opportunities when they were on top during the opening half, one was brilliantly saved by Sarah Buckley, but she knew nothing about the other and it came off someone’s stick to go out for a 45.
St Killian’s still led by 0-4 to 0-1 at the break, three of their scores coming from long-range frees from midfielder Dervla Cosgrove.
Templemore got a blistering start to the second half with their captain Ann Eviston firing over a point in the opening minute and in the next minute the dangerous Niamh Tracey blasting a close-range effort that Sarah Kane got to but couldn’t prevent hitting the net.
Both these players added points before St Killian’s got going again with captain Sinead Cosgrove forcing her way along the end-line and hand-passing the equaliser in the 41 st minute.
However Templemore got the crucial score 8 minutes later with Niamh Tracey blasting her second goal.
Again the north Antrim girls dug in and the final 10 minutes was played in their opponents’ half.
But the closest they came was 3 minutes from time when Niamh McKendry in possession was upended a couple of metres from the line. Amazingly play was waved on and with that went the Tower’s last chance.
St Killian’s : Sarah Kane, Leah Cosgrove, Oonagh Ward, Annie Leech, Ellen Hynds, Claire Kearney, Clodagh McKillop, Dervla Cosgrove 0-3 frees, Laoise McKenna, Mary Kane, Tierna Carson 0-1, Niamh McKendry, Sinead Convery, Sinead Cosgrove 1-0, Siobhán McKillop.
Sub : Dara Martin for N McKillop (57).
Our Lady’s : S Buckley, D Healey, K Cashman, O Cahill, M Curley, E Cahill, C Brennan, M Eviston, E Fitzpatrick, A Eviston 0-2, N Treacy 2-1, 0-1 free, M Campion, L Gleeson, A O’Dea 0-2, A Greed.
