McDonnell the hero with late goal in St John’s hour of glory

St John’s Dromore  2-6 Dominican Portstewart  0-10

AARON McDonnell was the St John’s hero on Tuesday afternoon at Celtic Park with his 56th minute goal clinching glory in the Under-16.5 Ulster Schools Bearnageeha Cup Final

He instinctively finished to the net at the end of a swift team move to put the Tyrone side ahead for the first time.

Dominican played some excellent football throughout and put their shoulder to the wheel again, knocking on the door to save the game. They found the Dromore defence and star man, goalkeeper Shea McDonnell, on no mood to cough up their lead.

“It’s unbelievable, our captain is in tears,” said a proud Dromore manager Aidan Logue afterwards.

“At u-14 a couple of years ago we were beat in a final, a couple of years before that, at u-16, we were beat by a goal in the last minute.

“Today, coming down to the end, they were pushing at us and we were holding tight.

“It was very touch and there is relief at playing such a strong team as them (Dominican),” stated Logue who was also keen to acknowledge the impact of Jimmy McCloughan who had invested forty years of sterling service to develop and promote GAA at the school.

St John’s epitomised the old adage the most important time to be ahead is at the end. An Oisin Colton goal did level the game going into the third quarter but Dominican responded with two points.

Their fans may have felt their side had to work harder for their frees, but the team just kept their eyes on the ball.

When Harry McMenamin broke up another Dominican attack, St John’s went hunting again.

Robertson got hands on the ball. Ryan McQuaid and Darragh McCann combined. Closer to goal, Colton joined the attack.

It was all or nothing and when McCann joined the move again his final pass was turned to the corner of the net by McDonnell’s instinctive finish to win the title.

“Every time we came into the game, they (Dominican) came back up and scored and kept us at arm’s length,” Logue said of the second half where his side had whatever wind was going.

It could’ve been a different story had Dominican made more first-half hay. Points from Patrick McGinley and Conor Love had them three points ahead. They also created a brilliant goal chance which was pulled wide by the busy Charles Molyneaux.

Dromore also needed a brilliant McDonnell save to deny Love a certain goal.  Had it gone in, a 1-3 to 0-0 lead may have been too steep.

McMenamin curled over a free with goal hero Aaron McDonnell kicking a point but Dromore were 0-6 to 0-3 in arrears at the break.

The third quarter was a case of Dromore notching a score with the Portstewart side having a response.

The pick of the scores was Darragh McCann’s point. The finish was impressive but so was the move. It began on goalkeeper McDonnell’s tee. Ryan McQuaid and Rhys Garrity were involved before McMenamin’s perfect pass.

A more direct Dromore benefited from a change of tact when a long ball found Colton who tucked his shot to the net to level matters, 1-5 to 0-8. When Duffy Crocker cut out the next attack that led to Dominican taking the lead, there was an air of calm in the Derry side.

However for all the neat passes, Dominican were never able to close out the game. Ryan McQuaid and Emmett McQuaid made important interceptions.

The most telling intervention was from Harry McMenamin. It stopped Dominican in their tracks with Aaron McDonnell pouncing for the winning goal seconds later.

Scorers

St John’s: Aaron McDonnell 1-1, Darragh McCann 0-3 (2f), Oisin Colton 1-0 and Harry McMenamin 0-2f

Dominican: Conor Love 0-4 (3f), Fergal Murray 0-3f, Patrick McGinley, Dara Hughes and Tiernan Andrews-Fryer 0-1 each

Teams

St John’s: Shea McDonnell; Cahir McLeneghan; Ryan McQuaid, Oisin Quinn; Rhys Garrity, Rory Partington, Emmett McQuaid; Aaron McGirr, Darragh McCann; Caolan Donnelly, Harry McMenamin, Aaron McDonnell; Conor Baxter, Oisin Colton, Aidan Robertson

Dominican: Dylan Corbett; Rohan Beckett, Thomas Campbell, Enda Lafferty; Andrew Hall, Duffy Crocker, Hugh Patrick Donaghy; Dara Hughes, Tiernan Andrews-Fryer; Charles Molyneaux, Patrick McGinley, Luca McGowan; Noah McGrotty, Conor Love, Fergal Murray

Referee: Alan Nash (Derry)