Danske Bank McEvoy Cup final
St Aidan’s Derrylin 4-10 Largy College Clones 2-11
LAST term, St Aidan’s got their hands on their first-ever piece of Ulster schools’ silverware and on Thursday afternoon they pulled away in the second half to place the Danske Bank McEvoy Cup in the trophy cabinet beside the MacCormack Cup.
They won the game before half-time however! Largy College had the majority of the play in that opening half but the teams went in on level terms of 1-4 each.
Thomas Fitzpatrick pulled off some excellent saves in the Derrylin goals and another Clones effort came off the foot of the post with Fitzpatrick beaten.
An early goal from Tomás Cathcart set St Aidan’s up nicely, but points from Paddy McDonald, Odhrán Carroll and Dane McAviney had Largy level midway through the half, with McDonald then finishing to the net just before the break to level the game once again after Derrylin had made a spurt a few minutes earlier.
Both teams raised their game in the early stages of the second half and goals from Ronan Fitzpatrick and sub Shea McManus, with his first touch, put St Aidan’s in charge at 3-5 to 1-6 after 36 minutes.
McDonald pulled a goal back 10 minutes later to close the gap to 3-6 to 2-7, but Derrylin responded with scores from McManus, Daire Donegan and Eoin McTernan.
Although Largy closed the gap once more to two points with seven minutes left, Tomás Cathcart cut in from the right and his inch-perfect pass across the goals found Ronan Fitzpatrick for the clinching goal.
Scorers
St Aidan’s R Fitzpatrick 2-4, 0-2 frees, T Cathcart 1-3, 0-2 frees, S McManus 1-1, D Donegan and E McTernan 0-1 each.
Largy P McDonald 2-2, O Carolyn 0-3, 0-2 frees, D McAviney, M McCaughey (free), M Paulausts (free), J Rooney, S Cusack (free), M Fisher 0-1 each
