Eglish and Cookstown shine to set up Minor showdown

The Grade One Minor Championship decider will be between Cookstown and Eglish after both produced impressive semi-finals displays to get the better of Errigal Ciaran and Ardboe respectively on Wednesday evening.

Eglish led by the minimum margin at the interval before running out 6-10 to 1-14 winners in Carrickmore.

A brace of early points from Ronan Bradley were followed by a Turlough Muldoon goal but Ardboe responded to go three in front thanks to a Conor Devlin goal and points from Conall Morgan and Davin McKeown. Bradley then converted a penalty and added a point to leave it 2-5 to 1-7 at the break.

Conor Holmes and Bradley tagged on points on the restart before the latter got his second goal. Eglish never looked back with Shay Oliver and Brian Og McGuckin adding further majors before Bradley completed his hattrick on a night when Ardboe were reduced to thirteen.

A late flurry of goals at Kildress saw Cookstown reach the final when beating Errigal Ciaran 5-7 to 1-9. Shea McDermot had a goal chance brilliantly pushed over the bar by Cookstown keeper Sean Og Quinn early on before Luke Neeson found the net for the winners.

Eoin Long and defender Karol Wawrynkiewicz added points for the Father Rocks but Errigal hit back through McDermott and Charlie Maguire.

Points from McDermott and Maguire saw the lead change hands before Long had a brace in response. In the closing ten minutes Jack McElhone, Neeson, Long and Matthew McCrellis all bagged Cookstown goals before Errigal Ciaran got a late consolation Jude Curran.

Grade Two

The Grade Two Final will be between Dungannon and Omagh after both had to come through two tough encounters as well.

The St.Enda’s required penalties to see off Coalisland in Galbally after it had ended 5-5 to 2-14. Senan Doyle top scored for the winners with 1-4 to his name with Ronan Falconer getting their other major with Conor Pritchard, Conan Campbell and Cormac Chism all weighing in with as brace of points each with Kevin McAnulla, Michael Corrigan, Michael Murphy and Cathal Cunningham also on target.

The Clarkes overcame Clonoe at Pomeroy on a 4-11 to 1-13 scoreline. Eoin Spence hit 2-2 for the winners with Conal Bell and Fergal Mallon getting their other goals while Jamie McCarthy tagged on five points with Leo Hughes grabbing a brace.

Eoin Mansell 1-2, TJ O’Neill 0-5, Daire Devlin 0-4, Michael Donnelly and Ben O’Neill were the marksmen for the Rahillys.

Grade Three

The Grade Three Final will be between Castlederg and Beragh. Castlederg managed to edge past Gortin in a thriller at Drumquin, 2-12 to 1-14. Corin McConnell 1-6 and Oisin Lynch 1-4 were in fine scoring form for the winners with Blaine Lynch and Jamie Doherty getting their other points.

It was a contest that could have gone either way with the excellent Lucas McGarvey hitting 1-7 for Gortin with their other scores coming from Oisin McCreanor 0-2, Ultan McConnell 0-2, Cillian Ellis, Aidan McNulty and Shayne Mossey.

Beragh were in superb goal scoring form as they beat Stewartstown 6-7 to 1-9 in Aghaloo. Darragh McKenna scored four goals for the Red Knights with Eoghan Donnelly 1-3, Sean McCann 0-3, Eoghan Loughran 1-0 and Conor McAleer their other scorers. Ryan Biggs got the goal for the Harps and he also tagged on a couple of points with Jude Lowe 0-3 and Michael Hughes 0-2 to the fore as well.