Magherafelt have no problems in MacRory opener

St Mary’s Magherafelt 4-12 St Mary’s CBGS Belfast 0-4
AFTER shipping two goals in the first eight minutes to last year’s beaten finalists an already difficult task had just become almost impossible for St Mary’s CBGS in this opening game of their Danske Bank MacRory Cup campaign.
Dominic McAteer was first to find the net and then Ciaran O’Neill, both finishing off excellent team moves for St Mary’s Magherafelt to open their scoring and the Convent went on to lead by 2-4 to 0-3 at the break with Rossa’s Eoin McMenamin hitting all three scores for the Glen Road side.
The Belfast side had spirited performances from Darren Cahill, Eoin Mattassa and Tomás Gillan as well as McMenamin, but Magherafelt was the dominant team with spare player Ronan McKenna’s involvement and distribution a feature. Eunan McElhennon was another to show up, while all the forwards saw a lot of the ball.
Magherafelt tagged on points during the third quarter with O’Neill scoring his second goal in the 46th minute. Close to the end Bellaghy midfielder got on the end of a high ball to palm home a fourth Convent goal.
St Mary’s Magherafelt : Shea Murray, Shay McSorley, Matthew McNeill, Aiden Mc Cluskey, Eunan Mc Elhinnan, Joey Mc Erlain, Ronan Mc Kenna, Conal Lagan (0-02), Keelan Friel (0-02), Callum Ormbsy, Ben Mc Erlain (0-03), Ciaran O’ Neill (2-00), Morgan Nelson (0-01), Paddy Mitchell (0-02), Dominic Mc Ateer (1-03)
Subs: Pat Bateson for C Ormbsy, Ruairi O’ Hagan for M Nelson
St Mary’s CBGS Belfast : Anton Mc Greevey, David Aiken, Pearse Hanna, Darren Cahill, Dannan Mc Keown, Ciaran Donnelly, Paul Gorman, Coary Fogarty, Eoin McMenamin (0-4, 0-2 frees), Cormac Mc Gettigan, Caolan Mc Kenna, Aaron O’ Connor, Eoin Malassa, Conor Morris, Thomas Skillen
Subs : Conal Quinn for A O’ Connor, Ruairi Hamill for C Fogarty, Eoin May for P Hanna

Photograph : Paddy McIlwaine