Our Lady’s Secondary School Castleblayney 5:10
Sacred Heart Newry 1:06
Our Lady’s Secondary School Castleblayney made history on Thursday 28th January in Crossmaglen when the U16 Girls Gaelic team captured the U16 Ulster B Title for the first time. This meant the U 16 Girls followed in the footsteps of the Senior Girls Ulster Success earlier in January and ensured the second piece of silverware at provincial level for the school in 2016.
The wet and windy conditions at the Armagh venue didn’t dampen the girls’ spirits as Our Lady’s dominated the game from the outset. Jayne Drury opened up the score sheet with a well taken goal in the opening minutes of the game followed by superbly taken points from Sorcha McCague and Aoife Bannigan. Sacred Heart replied with a goal and three points, utilising the wind advantage before the end of the first half. Sorcha McCague finished the first half as Our Lady’s started with a decisive goal following a great team move leaving Our Lady’s in front by 03-02 to 01-02 at the half time whistle.
The weather conditions continued to deteriorate in the second half, but despite this Our Lady’s dominated both the possession and the scoring using the wind advantage to their benefit in the second half. Jayne Drury was in top form in the second half combining well with Our Lady’s centre half forward Sorcha McCague to score two excellent goals. Excellently taken points from Sorcha McCague and Andrea Duffy added to Our Lady’s tally as they now started to pull away from the opposition. Centre half back, Niamh Kerr finished the scoring for Our Lady’s with a great run through the middle leaving Our Lady’s victors on a score line of 5:10 to Sacred Heart’s 1:06 at the final whistle. In all this was a fantastic team performance from Our Lady’s. The midfield pairing of Eimear Conlon and Andrea Duffy in the centre of the field proved very hardworking and effective in providing an endless supply of possession to a hard working half forward line of Jennifer Duffy, Sorcha Mc Cague and Eleanor Fitzpatrick while the clever movement of Saoirse Duffy and Aoife Bannigan along with the pace of Jane Drury caused great problems for the Sacred Heart full back line. In goals Lauren Mc Ginn was a strong presence and her clever use of possession was a feature of the game. The sheer dominance of Aisling Callan at full back bolstered by the support of Sinéad McElvaney and Abby Duffy ensured the Sacred Heart forwards were denied primary possession while the energetic half back line of Rebecca Sweeney, Niamh Kerr and Erin Hamill used possession to good effect.
Joint captains Niamh Kerr and player of the match Sorcha McCague lifted the Ulster U16 B Cup to a jubilant crowd. Like the Senior Girls Our Lady’s U/16’s now go on to represent Ulster in the All Ireland series against the Munster Champions on a date yet to be confirmed.
Team and scorers:
Lauren McGinn, Sinéad McElvaney, Aisling Callan, Abby Duffy, Erin Hamill, Niamh Kerr(0:1), Rebecca Sweeney, Eimear Conlon, Andrea Duffy(0:2), Jennifer Duffy, Sorcha McCague(1:4), Eleanor Fitzpatrick(0:1), Saoirse Duffy(0:1), Jayne Drury(3:0), Aoife Bannigan(1:1), Elizabeth Meegan, Danielle Casey, Ceara Finnegan, Mollie Doherty, Róise O’Brien, Katie Duffy, Caoimhe McGeough, Irene Fitzpatrick, Leagh Farrell.
Team Managers: Róisín Ó Keeffe and Karen Clerkin.
Pictured are the U16 Ladies team from Our Lady’s who captured the Ulster B title in stylish form in Crossmaglen last Thursday making it a double title for Our Lady’s, whose Senior Girls were also declared Ulster champions earlier in the month.
Pictured is player of the match, Sorcha McCague.
