St Louis & Maghera into Leonard final

Danske Bank Leonard Cup semi-finals
St Patrick’s Maghera 2-6 St Killian’s Garron Tower 1-6
St Louis Ballymena 7-17 Cross and Passion 2-3
TWO goals and two points from Eamon Cassidy in the first seven minutes of the second half at Ballymena sealed a surprise semi-final victory for St Patrick’s Maghera in the Danske Bank Leonard Cup.
Maghera squeezed through against St Killian’s and will now face St Louis Ballymena who overwhelmed Cross and Passion Ballycastle in the other semi-final in Cloughmills.
There was nothing to separate St Killian’s and Maghera in the opening half with both defences well on top and they turned around with 0-3 each.
Then came Cassidy’s scoring burst where he cut in at pace from the right wing to hit the net. St Killian’s moved a sweeper to cover his wing but the damage had been done.
Joe McNaughton replied with a goal and a point and anther point from Cormac McKeown left just a score between them but the Maghera defence held out under a lot of pressure in the last five minutes.
In the other semi-final, Ronan McCollum with 2-7 inspired St Louis Ballymena to a comfortable 7-17 to 2-3 win over Cross and Passion Ballycastle.
Goals from Pearse Davidson, Oisin McCamphill and McCollum had the game wrapped up at the break with an advantage of 3-10 to 1-1, Oran Donnelly scoring the Ballycastle goal from long range.
Although Liam Walker opened the second half with a goal for CPC, Ballymena took over control again and McCamphill quickly brought his total to 3-2 and Davidson and McCollum also netted for an emphatic win.
St Louis: O McCamphill (3-2), R McCollum (2-7), P Patterson (2-1), TP McGurk (1-0), D Martin (0-1), A McGarry (0-1), D Patterson (0-1), T McFerran (0-1), J McCloskey (0-1)
Cross and Passion : O Donnelly (1-2), L Walker (1-1)
St Patrick’s : E Cassidy (2-3), N Barton (0-2), E Scullion (0-1 free), J Dunne (0-1).
St Killian’s : J McNaughton (1-3, 0-2 frees), C McKeown (0-1), M Black (0-1), P McIlwaine (0-1)

Thanks to Paddy McIlwaine The Saffron Gael for the picture