St Joseph’s power their way to MacLarnon title

St  Joseph’s Donaghmore 4-10     Rathmore Belfast 1-3

IT proved to be an historic occasion at the Dub on Friday evening as St Joseph’s, Donaghmore won the Ulster Schools MacLarnon Cup for the first time in their history, after an emphatic victory over Rathmore Grammar, Belfast.

Rathmore got their challenge off to a dream start in the fourth minute when corner forward Garrett Cowan reacted first to fist the ball to the net after the St Joseph’s defence didn’t deal with a free from Rory McErlean.

The Antrim school though failed to score again until injury time at the end of the first half.

Donaghmore were enjoying plenty of possession but they came up against a well drilled Rathmore defence who invited them into the tackle before turning the ball over on a number of occasions.

It took until the 17th minute for the winners to open their account via Cormac Drayne before the same player added a point from play. The half back line of James Rafferty, Joey Clarke and Conor O’Neill continued to drive forward for St Joseph’s and they got back on level terms in the 22nd minute via Darragh Donaghy.

Just before the break midfielder John McKenna edged the winners in front for the first time but it was Rathmore who had the final say of the half with a free from McErlane.

St Joseph’s were determined to open the game up in the second half and they did just that with early quality points from Donaghy and Drayne. In the 36th minute a free from out on the left wing from Ronan Molloy came back off the post and Noah Grimes reacted first to send the ball to the net and you already got the feeling that it was game over.

McErlane converted a free but that score was quickly cancelled out by Conn Sweeney with his first touch after coming on. McKenna then landed a superb effort with the outside of his boot before another McErlane free brought to an end Rathmore’s scoring. During that spell Donaghmore had lost Drayne to a black card but it didn’t impact on their dominance.

O’Neill kicked a brilliant point from out on the left wing and straight from the next kick out Drayne finished to the net. It was all St Joseph’s now and it was certainly their night when a 30 metre free from Donaghy sailed all the way to the top left hand corner of the net.

As the contest slipped into injury time man of the match O’Neill burst past a couple of challenges before giving Rathmore keeper Dobrowolski no chance with an expert finish to the right corner of the net.

Centre half forward Grimes then had the final say for the history makers after a superb second half performance.

Teams & Scorers

St.Joseph‘s Donaghmore

Leo Quinn, Jude McNally, Ben Hughes, Darragh Donaghy (1-2,1free) , James Rafferty, Joey Clarke, Conor O’Neill (1-1), Shane Scullion, John McKenna (0-2), Leo Hughes, Noah Grimes (1-1), MJ Mansell, Cormac Drayne (1-3,1free), Mattie McNally, Ronan Molloy. Subs: Eoghan O’Neill for Donaghy, Johnny Field for Jude McNally, Conn Sweeney (0-1) for Mansell, Caolan Donaghy for Drayne

Rathmore Grammar Belfast

Kajetan Dobrowolski, Conall Devlin, Deaglan Mooney, Matthew Lloyd, Thomas Lloyd, Conor Logue, Se Ferris, Rory Grant, Odhran Arthurs, Donncha McGurk, Rory McErlean (0-3,3frees), Oscar Conlon, Garrett Cowan (1-0), Michael Morgan, Fiontan O’Boyle. Subs: Sonny Doyle for Logue, Rudi Smith for Cowan, Cormac Blaney for Arthurs, Sean McCarthy for Grant, Donal Martin for Mooney

Referee: Kevin Faloon, Armagh