Castlewellan and Armagh progress in Rafferty Cup
Danske Bank Rafferty Cup
St Malachy’s Castlewellan have reached their first Danske Bank Rafferty Cup final following a hard-fought battle yesterday with St Paul’s Bessbrook from which they emerged with a 2-10 to 1-8 victory.
St Malachy’s were hit by a goal after 11 minutes from Ryan Hughes, but bounced back when Kilcoo’s Tiarnan Fettes fired home a goal from close range and the Down side went on to lead by 1-7 to 1-4 at the break with Matthew Carville, Brian McEvoy and Johnny McVeigh all taking good scores.
St Paul’s closed the gap slightly during the third quarter with Sean Boylan points, but Eoin O’Hare clinched victory for Castlewellan with a goal in the 48th minute.
The last of the Rafferty Cup quarter-finals took place yesterday as well and there was drama in injury time as Lorcan Coulter gathered a 45 from Ruairi McDonald to blast to the roof of the net and give St Patrick’s Armagh a 1-10 to 2-6 win over Our Lady’s Castleblayney.
McDonald (0-3) and Coulter accounted for all Armagh’s scores in a first half that ended 0-4 each, with Josh Mone scoring two of ‘Blayney’s points.
Although Armagh pulled three points clear during the ten minutes after half-time, Eoghan Casey’s goal levelled it only for McDonald to put Armagh a point up.
After Robbie Hanratty had equalised again, Sean Markey finished a good spell for Our Lady’s by netting in the 48th minute and they held that slender lead until injury time when Coulter was in the right place at the time.
St Patrick’s now play Virginia College Cavan in the second semi-final next week.
St Malachy’s : Tiarnan Fettes 1-0, Eoin O’Hare 1-0, Matthew Carville 0-3, Brian McEvoy 0-2, Johnny McVeigh 0-2, Brendan McKay 0-1, Shay Croskery 0-1, Shane Kearney 0-1.
St Paul’s : Ryan Hughes 1-3, Sean Boylan 0-3, Jordan Burns 0-1, Tom O’Hagan 0-1.
St Patrick’s : Lorcan Coulter 1-1, Ruairi McDonald 0-5, James Birt 0-2, Tom Weir 0-2.
Our Lady’s : Sean Markey 1-1, Eoghan Casey 1-0, Josh Mone 0-3, Mark Mooney 0-1, Robbie Hanratty 0-1
