Ballinascreen take Ulster junior hurling honours after brushing aside East Cavan Gaels

AIB Ulster Club JHC final

Ballinascreen 1-25 v 3-9 East Cavan Gaels

BALLINASCREEN completed a Derry hurling hat-trick following wins for Slaughtneil and Swatragh, bringing the Ulster junior title back to the Oak Leaf county on Sunday afternoon.

They proved much too strong for East Cavan Gaels, with both sides competing in their first Ulster decider.

Ballinascreen set the tone early on with a goal from Eamon Conway after two minutes, and never looked in any danger.

East Cavan Gaels did take the bad look off the scoreboard in the final 10 minutes as they rattled off all three of their majors in that period, but it was too little too late and the result was already beyond doubt at that stage.

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The brilliant Ballinascreen attack displayed an awesome ability to score from range, while Noel Rafferty and Martin Bradley in the corners looked unstoppable. Ciaran McBride, Cormac Gough and Ryan Scullion stood out in defence for Cathal McDaid’s side.

Conway unexpectedly shot for goal from an early free, beating both the keeper and a waiting defender as Ballinascreen shot into a 1-2 to 0-0 lead.

Liam O’Brien and Nicholas Kenny pulled scores back for the Breffni men as they tried to keep in touch.

But by the 20th minute, the Derry champs had sailed into an 11-point lead, with Paul Cleary and Conway leading the way on the scoring front.

East Cavan Gaels did finish the half strongly, grabbing the final three points.

Canice Maher, Kenny and O’Brien (free) split the posts before the break, while Maher twice attempted to hit the net from dead-ball efforts, but both shots were turned away by Aodhan McCallion.

That left eight the difference at the interval, 1-11 to 0-6.

While East Cavan Gaels needed the quick start after the turnaround, Ballinascreen flew out of the traps with scores from man-of-the-match Conway, Bradley and Cleary although East Cavan Gaels did respond through the impressive Jack McGuinness and O’Brien.

A Ballinascreen scoring spree of six successive points widened the gap further, with 15 the margin heading into the final quarter.

The gap reached 18 by the time East Cavan Gaels rattled off their first three-pointer and two further goals followed.

Captain Rory Farrell was the first to find the net before Kenny and substitute Killian O’Donnoghue also raised green flags, but it wasn’t enough to trouble the scoreboard and Adam Baldwin’s side finished with 14 players when Tadgh Barry received a red card.

Fittingly, the extraordinary Conway, who finished with 1-7 on the day, grabbed the final point, giving his side a 10-point cushion when the referee called for the ball.

Scorers

Ballinascreen E Conway 1-7 (1-1f); P Cleary 0-5; N Rafferty 0-4; E McCallion 0-3; C McBride & M Bradley 0-2 each; R McSorley & C Gough (f) 0-1 each

East Cavan Gaels N Kenny 1-3; L O’Brien 0-4 (0-3f); R Farrell 1-0; C Maher & J McGuinness 0-1 each