Knock take exciting Casement final
Danske Bank Casement Cup final
Our Lady’s & St Patrick’s Knock 3-10 St Mary’s Magherafelt 2-10
Our Lady’s & St Patrick’s Knock produced a solid response when St Mary’s Magherafelt drew level with them five minutes after the break in an excellent Danske Bank Casement Cup final at the Dub last night.
The south-east Belfast side led by four points at the break, but a point from Eamon Conway was followed by a goal from Ronan O’Kane in the 35th minute and it looked as if St Mary’s would make up for the disappointment of losing last year’s final.
Instead Ballygalget’s Ryan Coulter fired to the net and captain Tom Murray added two points either side of a single from Coulter and the south Derry school were once more chasing the game. One of Murray’s points was of inspirational quality, picking the sliotar up in his half-back line, bouncing off two tackles and firing over from distance.
Winning coach Conor Duggan felt that those scores won the Cup for Knock for the first time in their history.
“Yes, it really was a closely fought game until the final whistle, and to open up a gap at any stage was going to be a big move.”
“This is our first senior Colleges’ title in hurling and it is a huge boost for the game in the school. We have won a number of under-age titles over the past number of years, but it is quite an achievement to win a title at senior level.”
“St Mary’s were in last year’s final and we knew that it would be a huge ask of our players to rise to the occasion and match that experience. They beat us well in the league game but we felt that Magherafelt holding the favourites’ tag would suit us.”
“I am really proud of the boys, particularly in how they responded to the goal at the start of the second half.”
They had to respond to a goal at the start of the first half as well!
Ronan O’Kane hit the net after just five minutes of play, but Knock were not long responding with Carryduff midfielder Donal óg Rooney matching O’Kane’s strike a few minutes later.
The other Knock midfielder Sean Blaney stretched Knock’s lead, but Kevin Small (free) from play levelled the game at 1-3 each after 17 minutes
Lorcan McCaughey’s 24th minute goal helped Knock to a half-time lead of 2-5 to 1-4, but it could have been a lot closer had the Magherafelt free-taker been on his game.
On the re-start the goal brought them hope of success, but that was quickly extinguished by Coulter and Murray and, despite three frees from O’Kane, Our Lady’s and St Patrick’s went on to write their name on the Danske Bank Casement Cup for the first time.
OLSP Knock : C McLornan, M McKibbin, E Kelly, M McAreavy, G Henderson, E Coulter, T Murray capt. 0-2, S Blaney 0-1, D óg Rooney 1-2, C Doyle, G Toal, C Coulter 0-4, L McCaughey 1-0, P Loughran 0-1, R Coulter 1-2. Subs : L Collins for T Murray (50), J McKee for G Henderson (55), C Sullivan for P Loughran (59).
St Mary’s : C Prenter, D Donnelly, M Rogers, D Kelly, D Carey, P Lagan, M Mulholland, E Conway 0-2, 0-1 free, K McCann, L Quinn, K Small 0-2, 0-1 free, E Glass, J Crawford 0-1, R O Kane 2-3, 0-3 frees, C Donnelly 0-1
Referee : Brendan Toland (Lamh Dhearg).
