10 May 2010
Loughgiel sent reigning champions Rossa crashing out of this season’s competition when they beat them by 2-11 to 2-7 in Monday evening’s Under 21 Hurling quarter final in Loughgiel.
With the nucleus of last season’s team on show Rossa were fancied by many to retain their title but despite getting off to a dream start with a goal inside twenty seconds by corner-forward Matt Devlin they failed to take advantage of the wind advantage in the opening half and were made to pay for some terrible free taking.
Loughgiel were much more efficient and with Liam McKillop showing great accuracy from placed balls they recovered from their bad start and took the lead when Donal McKinley grabbed a goal in the seventh minute. Rossa regained the lead when centre-half forward Liam McAuley kicked in his team’s second goal in the fifteenth minute but Loughgiel hit back right away and Paudie McFadden goaled from close range after Rossa goalkeeper Danny Murray had made a good save.
Leading by just a single point at half-time (2-5 to 2-4) it was clear a two point cushion was never going to be enough for the champions and Loughgiel were soon on terms with two pointed frees from Liam McKillop. McKillop gradually edged his team in front and Paudie McFadden added one from play to give the Shamrocks a three point cushion.
Rossa did pull a point back through Christopher McGuinness but they only managed one more point throughout the second-half and Loughgiel booked a semi-final place against St Brendan’s on June 11th.
In the other quarter-final games St Brendan’s beat St Paul’s by 2-14 to 0-8 at Shaw’s Road, Ballycastle also travelled to Belfast and beat Sarsfields by 1-15 to 0-9 while Cushendall ran up a massive 7-22 when beating St John’s in Cushendall.
