Early goals enough for Rathmore

February 25, 2016

Danske Bank O’Doherty Cup Semi Final

Rathmore Grammar 4-9 St Malachy’s Castlewellan 1-11

A brilliant opening eight minutes in Newry yesterday set Rathmore Grammar up for success in this Danske Bank O’Doherty Cup semi-final.

Lorcan Heenan, Daire Matthews and Ethan Carlton all hit the net during that opening spell of dominance and the Belfast school led St Malachy’s Castlewellan by 3-1 to a single point.

Helped by a Conor McCrickard goal, St Malachy’s recovered their composure before the break, but still turned around 1-6 to 4-3 in arrears with Carlton again shooting to the net.

The second half was fairly evenly contested with Lorcan Heenan bringing his total for the match to 1-5, while Gareth McKibbon’s two points for St Malachy’s raised him to 0-4.

However with Conall Turley, Caomhan Daykin, Matthew Hamill and Daire Matthews all in great form, Castlewellan were never really in with a chance of closing the gap and Rathmore go through to meet another south Down school, St Mark’s Warrenpoint, in next month’s final.

Rathmore : Ethan Carlton 2-1, Lorcan Heenan 1-5, Daire Matthews 1-1, Paul O’Hanlon 0-1, Malachi Doherty 0-1

St Malachy’s : Conor McCrickard 1-3, Gareth McKibbon 0-4, Declan McClenaghan 0-2, Oisin Duggan 0-1, Callum Fitzpatrick 0-1.