Ballycastle Meet Maghera in Mageean Decider

CPC go through to meet St Pat’s in Mageean final, but they had to work hard for the win

Danske Bank Mageean Cup semi-final:

Cross & Passion Ballycastle 1-15 St Louis Ballymena 1-14

Cross & Passion College Ballycastle held off a St Louis comeback to secure their place in the final of the Mageean Cup against St Pat’s Maghera on December 6th. Twenty minutes into this game it had all the appearances of being one sided stroll of the Ballycastle school when they led by 1-09 to 0-01. They had taken their scores with relative ease to build up a deserved 11 point lead, and despite having the benefit of a stiff breeze they appeared to be on course for a comfortable win.

However things took a dramatic turn when their ace forward Fiontan Bradley, who had been fairly well contained by the CPC defence, was hauled down in the large square and match referee Ray Mattews awarded a penalty. The Ruairi Og ace stepped up an blasted the ball home and all of a sudden things began to change and in the five minutes of play that remained in the first half he added another three points to leave just six between the sides at the interval.

When Bradley hit the first three points of the second half the gap was back to three and at that stage they smart money was on the St Louis to advance, but CPC eventually found some rhythm in their play and stretched the lead back to six. The CPC fans must have thought the pressure was off, but St Louis came again and had the gap down to the minimum when CPC’s star man Oisin McCallen intercepted a St Louis hand pass and found space to fire over the game clinching point.

McCallin was the man who got CPC up and running at the start of the game and two pointed frees were followed by points from Conan Johnston, Cadhan Crawford and Logan McConville. Bradley got his team on the scoreboard when he pointed a difficult free on fiftheen minutes, but CPC were well on top and two more from McCallin and one from corner forward Paidi O’Kane were followed by the first goal of the game from the Dunloy youngster who cut through on goal and fired a ground shot to the net after his initial effort had been denied by a great ‘hook’ by St Louis defender Joe McFadden.

Eleven clear at this stage you were wondering just how big the gap could be at the change of ends, but Bradley turned the game on its head with a goal and three points in the run-in to leave things looking a lot brighter for the Ballymena school as they made their way to the changing rooms at half time.

When McCallin got the first three points of the new half, to make it six in a row, CPC appeared to be in trouble, but McCallin settled them with two good points, one on either side of fine score by Paidi O’Kane. However it was ten more minutes before they raised another flag and in that time St Louis knocked over four of their own to leave just two between the teams. When Bradley cut it back to one you wondered how CPC could hold on, but a stroke of genius by McCallin saw him split the post at the other end to put his team two clear, and though St Louis had the last point of the game it was to prove too little, too late and CPC were over the line

CPC: P O’Kane 1-2, O McCallin 0-8 (3fs), C Johnson and C Crawford 0-2 each, L McConville 0-1.

St Louis: F Bradley 1-9 (0-7fs), C McCollum 0-3, J McAlonan and C Smith 0-1

Posted on

Picture by John McIlwaine