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Mon 14th Jun 2010
St Patrick’s Maghera are Year 8 Ulster Hurling Champions
St Patrick’s Maghera were crowned Ulster Year 8 Hurling champions and collected the Thompson Cup when they emerged undefeated against their main Antrim opponents on Friday past at St Mary’s Belfast school pitches. The day began for the Derry lads with a cracking game against Cross and Passion, Ballycastle which saw St Patrick’s emerge with a two point victory thanks to goals from Joseph Grant and Connor Kelly although goalkeeper, John Cassidy and defenders Sean Brunton, Patrick Turner and Niall Smyth had big parts to play also in thwarting the Antrim attackers. From this excellent victory St Patrick’s then had a very fluent victory over La Salle Belfast, with Conor McAllister, Sean Ó Caisidé and Conor Glass all making very important contributions to an impressive performance which set St Patrick’s up for a semi-final game. Back to back victories for St Patrick’s also ensured that Antrim heavyweights Ballycastle and host school St Mary’s would meet up at the semi-final stage while the Maghera team would face Garron Tower in the knock-out stages.
The change in the weather and very blustery conditions certainly aeffected the semi-final. Maghera played against the breeze in the first half and the contribution of Ciarán Mc Guigan, Brian Cassidy and Seán Brunton helped decide the game in this period. Again and again Garrontower’s attack floundered on the Maghera defence and Brunton’s ability to find a blue shirt made a massive difference. Leading 0:3 to 0:1 at half time Maghera made a few second half changes and although they took time to find their range, with a number of frees and long range shots trailing wide, Glass, Cartin and Kelly started to combine well. With Glass’s high fielding creating opportunities it fell to Connor Kelly to ripple the back of the net and the full forward soon scored himself with a fine driven shot from 15 yards into the top corner to guarantee a final place.
St. Mary’s though were just after a gruelling semi with Ballycastle that went to xtra time and St. Mary’s felt they were destined to lift the trophy. St. Patrick’s lined out with a few positional changes and a number of boys not wanting to let another Ulster title slip through their grasp after being involved with the McNamee team earlier in the year.
In a very tough physical battle there was little between the teams with both sides forcing errors. It was St. Patricks who gave away the initiative conceding a free which was scored by St. Mary’s. The response was immediate. Pauric Mc Nicholl gathered a ball from Shane Mc Guigan and powered forward to score a cracking goal. St. Mary’s were dismayed but came back to score another free to keep themselves in a good position. Maghera though started the second half with a quick goal and they were starting to dominate with Patrick Turner nullifying the dangerous corner forward from Belfast, Brian Cassidy and Conor Mc Allister controlling midfield and Pauric McNicholl tormenting the Mary’s defence. Mary’s needed goals and started pumping balls into the full forward line. Liam Cassidy made a few outrageous catches and St. Mary’s hopes started to fade. Darragh Cartin not wanting to be outshone by Mc Nicholl, made a great catch, turned his man and headed straight for goal. The keeper saved only for Joseph Grant to again smuggle the ball over the line and ensure the Thompson Cup would be travelling back to St Patrick’s with the victorious Maghera team and coach Mr Ronan O’Donnell.
St Patrick’s Year 8 Hurling Squad
Connor Kelly, Shane McGuigan, Conor Mac Allister, Dara Mc Peake, Brian Cassidy, Shea Downey, Eoighan McCloskey, Sean Ó Casaide, Jerome Mc Guigan, Pauric Mc Nicholl, Joseph Grant, Darragh Cartin, Liam Cassidy, Fintan O’Kane, Sean Brunton, Ciarán McGuigan, Patrick Turner, Conor Glass, Niall Smyth, John Cassidy, Hugh McGurk
Submitted by: Paul Hughes
