St Eunan’s first into MacLarnon semis

Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup quarter-final:
St Eunan’s Letterkenny 1-16 Loreto Coleraine 1-4
ST EUNAN’S Letterkenny are the first team through to the Danske Bank MacLarnon Cup semi-finals after this comfortable quarter-final victory over Coleraine’s Loreto College at Owenbeg yesterday afternoon.
The Donegal side were on top from the start with Pauric McGettigan dominating the middle of the field and kicking five points from play as well. And there was plenty of support for the big St Eunan’s club player from goalie Eoghan O’Boyle, James Kelly, Shane McDevitt and Schools’ All-star Brian Diver.
Loreto as a result were always struggling to get a foothold in the game and only managed two points from frees in the opening half, one of them from Dara Mooney their best player on the day.
Mooney was their goal-scorer six minutes after the break when they reduced the margin between the teams to five points with an unanswered 1-2, but Letterkenny soon wrestled back control and hit a number of fine points in the last quarter.
St Eunan’s led 0-8 to 0-2 at half-time, and they spurned several openings for goal as well, although Leo Passmore was in fine form as well saving brilliantly from Shane McDevitt after being put through by Brian Diver early in the game. Oisin Purdy and McGettigan hit two points each in that opening period.
After just 27 seconds of the second-half, Conor O’Donnell and Shane McDevitt burst through for Purdy to slam his shot to the back of the net.
Although Rory Maguire set Dara Mooney up for a goal in response and sub Ben Dillon caused a bit of panic over the next ten minutes with Mooney and Donal O’Kane finishing moves with Coleraine points, St Eunan’s never really looked likely to lose control.
Purdy, McDevitt, McGettigan (2) and substitute Brian Alcorn were all on target with points to put the Donegal side back on top during the last quarter.
Meanwhile Loreto’s neighbours, Dominican College Portstewart reached a first ever Ulster Colleges’ final when they defeated St Patrick’s Ballymena 8-8 to 2-3 with a goal blitz at the end of each half.
Dominican will now play the winners of St Colman’s Ballynahinch and St John’s Dromore in the Danske Bank JJ O’Reilly Cup final at the end of February.
Loreto : L Passmore, J Meehan, F Close, S Irwin, C McKelvey, A Gillen, R Maguire, D O’Kane 0-1, C McGee, E McGuigan, D Mooney 1-2, 0- free, D Walton, O McLarnon, A McGonigle 0-1 free, P Rafferty.
Subs: B Dillon for O McLarnon (HT), C Coll for E McGuigan (HT), E McKeever for S Irwin (55), M Catterson for P Rafferty (56).
St Eunan’s: E O’Boyle, C O’Kane, A Gallagher, J Kelly, B Diver 0-1, S McDaid, R Hilferty, P McEniff, P McGettigan 0-5, S Doherty 0-2, C Finn, C O’Donnell 0-1, S O’Donnell, S McDevitt 0-3, 0-1 free, O Purdy 1-3.
Subs: B Alcorn 0-1 for C O’Donnell (52), P Tobil for O Purdy (58), A Grant for C Finn (59), K McGarvey for S McDevitt (62).
Referee : Martin Conroy (Tyrone).