16 June 2010
The St.Malachy’s year 10 hurling team endured a closely fought game in Portadown on Tuesday to win the College’s second hurling title this year. Having won the year 9 hurling competition – the McGreevy Cup – in December, St.Malachy’s faced the same opposition, Armagh school St.Patrick’s, Keady, to decide the year 10 Ulster Final.
St.Malachy’s started the brighter on the scoreboard with four points unanswered, contributed by Cormac Ross, Eoin Conlon and Conor McEvoy. However, they found it difficult to add to that score in the first half despite the perfect conditions. St.Patrick’s Keady had increased the pressure on the Belfast boys and after adding a point to their tally, the sliotar found the St.Malachy’s need through a high lob. The teams were level at half-time 0-4 to 1-1.
The second half saw a similar start to the first half. From the throw-in, midfielder Cormac Ross raised the ball, brought it up the field and struck to the roof of the net. This was accompanied by points from Conor McEvoy, Sean McCallum, Eoin Conlon and Ross again. Minutes later Conor McEvoy found the ball in the penalty area and struck the ball across the net into the bottom corner to give St.Malachy’s their second goal. The score read 2-9 to 0-4 and it looked like St.Malachy’s had the Cup secured with fifteen minutes to go.
Following a few committed tackles and hard knocks exchanged between both sides, the referee decided to take action. With a quarter of an hour left on the clock, Ryan Straney received a second yellow card, for nothing more than standing his ground and the referee needlessly issued the red card. The remainder of the game saw St.Patrick’s increase their effort with the extra man and managed to find the net twice in the last ten minutes, but St.Malachy’s defence was strong enough to hold on to a 2-9 to 3-2 victory.
It has been a successful year for St.Malachy’s on the hurling front. The college are not finished quite yet, with the year 11 final to be played against Belfast rivals Rathmore. Two trophies with the prospect of a third is quite an achievement for the Antrim Road boys.
St.Malachy’s Panel
Killian Jennings, Ryan Straney, Matt Magennis, Cormac Crummey, Jack Arthurs, Ruairi Diamond, Aaron Goldring, Eoin Conlon, Cormac Ross, Matt McKillen, Ben Toner, Matt McCann, Sean McCallum, Conor Burrows, Conor McEvoy
SUBS USED
Ruairi Donaghy, Matthew Mearns, Edward O’Connor, Manus Mullan
PANEL
Patrick Sloan, Ciaran Breslin, James Dunn, Kurtis Maguire, Ben Rice, Rian McCreight, Luke Brady, Pascal Clarke, Ronan O’Fril, Conor Davison, Donal de Brun, Joe McQuillan, Anton Lidster
Team Coach: Mark Devlin
Team Mentor: Phil Molloy
St.Patrick’s Keady Panel
Padraig McGuigan, Art Molloy, Daniel Mone, Tiernan Nevin, Ryan Beagan, Shay Mone, Martin Hughes, Ryan Murray, Ryan Donnelly, Gareth Woods, Kevin Loughran, Dean Gaffney, John Carroll, James McGeown, Peter McKearney
PANEL
Gary Carr, Conor McVeigh, Aidan Harnett, Barry Shortt, Kevin McKenna, Shane Mooney, Paddy Shortt, Patrick Corrigan
Team Coach: Paddy Hollywood