Clinical Castlederg U14s take league honours

Castlederg 10-5  Rock 3-9

CASTLEDERG are Under-14 Grade Three League champions for 2024 after they turned on the style to beat a dogged Rock side at Killyclogher on Saturday afternoon.

In the end it was comfortable for the winners but Rock gave as good as they got for forty odd minutes before Castlederg finally wore them down.

The winners enjoyed a dream start to the contest when Lorcan McHugh finished off a good team move by firing to the net past Rock keeper James Donaghy.

The same player then added a point from a free before Rock had two good goal chances inside sixty seconds of each other with Fionn Daly firing narrowly wide of the target and Daryl Owens being denied by Castlederg keeper Shaye McHugh.

A sharp turn from Castlederg full forward Kian McMenamin saw him open his account before Rock got off the mark in the 12th minute through team Captain Daly.

In the 19th minute McMenamin rounded keeper Donaghy to score his side’s second goal but Rock hit back with a free from midfielder Aodhan Loughran and a point from play from Daly.

Rock were enjoying a good spell but just before halftime they were undone again when a superb pass from Nathan Glackin sent Corin Donaghey through on goal and he made no mistake to leave the scoreboard reading 3-2 to 0-3.

Rock needed a good start to the second half and they got it with three of the opening four points from Loughran (2) and Daly. Glackin and Oisin Harvey kept the scoreboard ticking over for the winners and when Donaghey found the net for them they never looked back.

Rock had an opportunity for an immediate response but Ruairi O’Hagan’s rising shot cleared the bar.

After that Castlederg really grew in confidence with Diego Lora to the fore in the middle of the field.

McHugh and Charlie Connolly got goals within a minute of each other and at that stage the game was over as a contest.

Full forward McMenamin bagged another three goals with Caidan Harold also raising a green flag for the St.Eugene’s.

To their credit though Rock kept playing away and they got their reward with Caolan Quinn splitting the posts and goals coming from Danny Kerr, Daly and Ohagan but on the day it was Castlederg who emerged convincing winners.

Castlederg scorers

Kian McMenamin 4-2, Lorcan McHugh 2-1, Corin Donaghey 2-0, Charlie Connolly 1-0, Caidan Harold 1-0, Oisin Harvey 0-1, Nathan Glackin 0-1

Rock scorers

Fionn Daly 1-4, Ruairi O’Hagan 1-1, Aodhan Loughran 0-3, Danny Kerr 1-0, Caolan Quinn 0-1