By 
ULSTER SCHOOLS MACRORY CUP
THE impressive form shown by Tyrone schools in this season’s Danske Bank MacRory Cup continued during the past week with Omagh CBS and St. Patrick’s Academy Dungannon both recording victories.
Omagh accounted for St Ronan’s Lurgan and as a result they top their group and will have home advantage against Patrician Carrickmacross in their last 16 clash this week, defeat putting St Ronan’s out of the competition. Dungannon also finished group winners after hammering Cathair Dhoire and their reward is a knockout game with Southwest Donegal at Stewartstown tomorrow afternoon.
In Omagh’s game at St Paul’s they led from start to finish with the superb Thomas Meenan giving them the best possible start with a goal after 25 seconds.
Meenan, Diarmuid Martin and Harley Patton had first half points but the Armagh lads stayed in the game thanks to scores from Conal Wilson, Aaron Lennon and Callum McKerr and when Ronan O’Connor palmed the ball to the net late in the half that trimmed Omagh’s advantage to the minimum, 1-5 to 1-4.
The visitors were out of the traps quickly for the second half as well and inside two minutes full forward Martin had blasted the ball to the roof of the net.
Meenan then weighed in with a brilliant two pointer and it looked as though Omagh would kick on from there.
To their credit though, St Ronan’s fought for their MacRory Cup lives and they hit back with points from Lennon (2) and Eoin Brankin to close the gap.
But Omagh kept their noses in front with Peter Colton coming on in the second half to land two brilliant points as they ran out 2-9 to 1-7 winners.
The Academy topped group C without losing a game and it was-one way traffic in Stewartstown on Thursday afternoon as they hammered Cathair Dhoire 1-20 to 0-5. As the scoreline suggests, it was a one-sided encounter with the winners going about their business in a professional manner right from the start.
They had points from Charlie Maguire, Liam McGeary, Darragh Devlin, Michael Hughes and Eoin Long all inside five minutes and they never looked back.
Cathair Dhoire then began to enjoy some possession but their shooting let them down and instead it was the Academy who continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over with points from Long and McGeary to leave it 0-7 to 0-0 at the end of the opening quarter.
Liam Meenan finally opened Cathair Dhoire’s account from an 18th minute free in a game where he was to be his side’s sole marksman.
It was the Academy though who closed the first half out as James Mulgrew powered through from midfield to score to leave it 0-9 to 0-1.
The visitors had it all to do in the second half if they were to get back into the game but they made a positive start with a two pointer from the boot of Meenan.
Long and Meenan then exchanged points before the Academy took a stranglehold on proceedings again as Long and Maguire both registered again after Darragh Devlin had scored twice.
Any outside chance that Cathair Dhoire of getting back into the game disappeared at the end of the third quarter when Devlin grabbed the only goal of the game from close range.
Meenan took his personal haul to 0-5 but it was the Academy who closed the game out with points from Davin McKeown, Maguire and Jonah Feeney coupled with a two pointer from Hughes.
Dean bow out of Rafferty Cup
Meanwhile, in the Danske Bank Rafferty Cup there was heartbreak for Dean Maguirc Carrickmore when they lost out in the semi final to Abbey Vocational School Donegal in a contest that required extra time to decide.
It was a game that the Dean will feel that they should have won as they were left to rue missed goal chances at various stages.
Wing half back Damian Meenagh and full forward Padraig Murphy both found the net in the first half of normal time.
Micheál McCrystal hit 0-6 for the Dean and they led by a point with normal time up only for the Abbey to equalise with a free with the last kick of the game.
In extra time, the Dean held a narrow advantage as well with time running out but once again the Donegal levelled again with the last kick. It finished 2-12 to 1-15 with the Abbey progressing to the decider after winning the penalty shootout 3-2.