Second half surge helps St Pat’s Academy beat Balbriggan

St Pat‘s Academy, Dungannon 4-9  Loreto Balbriggan, Dublin 3-6

ST PATRICK’S Academy Dungannon sealed a place in the All-Ireland Ladies PPS Under-16 Junior B Championship Final with a six point victory over Loreto Balbriggan at Breffni Park on Thursday afternoon.

They will now meet Macroom College Cork in the final later this month though such a date seemed unlikely after the Dublin school dominated the opening exchanges in this contest.

Dungannon found themselves eight points down after a sloppy first quarter.

Though initially they were chasing the game they slowly clawed themselves back into it, inspired by captain Cara McMoran and the accuracy of Aine Neilis.

Loreto led narrowly at the break 2-3 to 0-8 with the dynamic trio of Ava Moran, Niamh Rowney and Aoibhin Malone impressive for the Leinster outfit.

Moving the ball well, they carved out openings with Aoibheann Watt caught out twice in the Dungannon goal.

Gradually Aine McDonald and Emily Boyle started to get a grip on proceedings in the Academy defence and at the other end they carved out scores with McMoran and Neilis among the points, as they reduced the deficit to the bare minimum at half-time.

The Academy cut loose throughout the second half imposing their quality on the Balbrigan side that could only muster 1-3.

A confident Amy Holme took charge of midfield and also registered a fine point, while the influence of McMoran was also critical to the final outcome.

McMoran scored the goal of the game when she carried the ball from her own defence to slot past Aishling Murphy and the Dungannon side built on that. Granted Grace Miller, Rowney and Malone created chances for Loreto and they did pull a goal back but it was the Tyrone defence who were in charge by now.

McDonald, Boyle and centre half Terese Loughran were excellent throughout the second period winning lots of possession as Loreto tried to open a path through.

Aoife Quinn rattled in a goal for the Academy and while they missed a handful of chances the quality of the likes of Lily Skelton Lambe shone through.

An impressive brace of goals from her eased any potential worries as the Ulster champions eased home to a six point win, to leave themselves on the brink of creating history.

St Patrick’s Scorers

Lily Skelton Lambe 2-0, Cara Mc Moran 1-3, Aine Neilis 0-5, Aoife Quinn 1-0. Amy Holmes 0-1

 Teams

St Patrick’s Dungannon: Aoibheann Watt, Natalie Manzjuke, Aimee Devlin, Emily Boyle, Tess Daly, Terese Loughran, Ellie McCarty, Cara McMoran, Amy Holmes, Catriona Nic Chormaic, Aine McDonald, Aine Nelis, Aoife Quinn, Lauren O’Neill, Ceallaigh Ni Raifeartaigh. Sub Lily Skelton Lambe for Ni Raifeartaigh.

Loreto Balbriggan: Aishling Murphy, Lily Fitzpatrick, Jessie Walsh, Lucy O’Brien, Heod Macken, Lexie Kelly, Olivia McCarthy, Faye Hardy, Pheobe Macken, Rosie Kelly, Aoibhin Malone, Emma Curley, Ava Moran, Niamh Rowney, Grace Miller.