North Antrim Hurling
Cloughmills 2nds 1-21 | Loughgiel 3rds 1-16
The McCaughan Cup final at the Brustin Braes, Larne, saw Cloughmills 2nds secure a hard fought1-21 to 1-16 victory over Loughgiel 3rds in a thoroughly entertaining game. Cloughmills got away to a blistering start, setting the tone just 14 seconds in with a point from Liam Kearns.Â
Eoin Dobbin doubled their advantage on three minutes before Cahir McGrath opened Loughgiel’s account from a free. Cloughmills then surged ahead when Kearns beautifully caught a high ball, swiveled, and planted it in the bottom corner of the net at the seven-minute mark. Thirty seconds later, Michael Reid fired over a point to put his side in a commanding position, followed quickly by another from Kearns and an excellent distance strike from Dobbin.
Despite Cloughmills creating plenty of chances, they began to shoot a lot of wides, allowing Loughgiel to come back into the game and close the gap. Niall ‘Cowboy’ McFadden sparked the revival on 12 minutes with a fine score, before immediately winning the subsequent puck-out and sending it back over the bar. Aodhan McFadden and Cahir McGrath added good points from the wing to narrow the deficit. Although Eoin Dobbin landed a fantastic long-range point from inside his own half for Cloughmills,Â
Loughgiel struck a major blow on 20 minutes when full-back Conor Dallas impressively soloed up the field to join the forwards and fired to the net, bringing his team right back into contention. The sides traded scores approaching the break, with Shemus Duffin, Ruairi Laverty, and Kearns pointing for Cloughmills, while Odhran McMullan accurately converted a distance free for Loughgiel, leaving the halftime score delicately poised at 1-09 to 1-07.
At the start of the second half, Cloughmills were once again first out of the traps. They hit three unanswered points through Stephen Smyth, Liam Kearns, and Conor Mc Kendry to stretch their gap to five. Loughgiel responded well through a Cahir McGrath free, but Cloughmills maintained their momentum when Stephen Smyth ran through from midfield to strike a fine point off his left side. Loughgiel continued to press, with Niall McFadden and McGrath adding to their tally, and Odhran McMullan brilliantly striking another long-range free straight over the bar. Michael McGarry then narrowed the gap further with a great point from midfield on 16 minutes.
Loughgiel kept chipping away at the lead, but Cloughmills weathered the storm superbly in the final quarter. Stephen Smyth immediately replied to McGarry’s effort with an equally good strike from midfield for Cloughmills. Eoin Dobbin then added two excellent points from distance, while Smyth raised another white flag to keep the scoreboard ticking over.Â
Liam Kearns effectively sealed the victory on 28 minutes, stretching the Cloughmills advantage to eight points. Loughgiel fought to the bitter end, registering impressive late points from Conor Dallas on the right wing, a monstrous strike from Odhran McMullan that was the longest point of the night, and additional scores from Michael McGarry and . However, a late point from Conor Mc Kendry and the resilient Cloughmills attack ensured they went on to win convincingly in the end.
Naomh BrÃd (Cloughmills): 1 Cathaoir McFerran, 2 Jack McDowall, 3 Corey Blair, 4 Sean McKendry, 5 Reece Watt, 6 Ruairi Laverty, 7 Dara Watterson, 8 Stephen Smyth, 9 Aaron McGuckian, 10 Michael Reid, 11 Eoin Dobbin, 12 Shemus Duffin, 13 Ryan Watson, 14 Liam Kearns, 15 Conor Mc Kendry,
Subs – 17 Johnny Duffin, 18 Geoffrey Og Laverty, 19 Timothy McNeill, 20 James O’Boyle.
Na Seamróga (Loughgiel): 1 D Ó Mullan, 2 T McNulty, 3 Conor Dallas, 4 Ger McFadden, 5 Dara McGivern, 6 Odhran McMullan, 7 Charley O’Hagan, 8 Aodhan McFadden, 9 Michael McGarry, 10 Patrick Bradley, 11 Niall McFadden, 12 Dylan Devlin, 13 Tomás McIntyre, 14 Cahir McGrath, 15 Odhran McGrath,
Subs – 16 Danny McAuley, 17 Ronan Casey, 18 Tiernan McFadden, 19 Anthony McCloskey, 20 C McMahon.
Referee – Deaglan Carey – Con Magees
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