First final for St. Conor's Clady/Kilrea

St Conor’s Clady/ Kilrea 7-8 . . . St Malachy’s Castlewellan 2-5

St Conor’s Clady/Kilrea are through to their first Senior Medallion Shield final after this comfortable semi-final win over St Malachy’s Castlewellan in Mallusk on Friday.

St Conor’s dominated from the start, built up a strong lead at half-time and then fended off the challenge of a useful enough Castlewellan side to set up a final at the start of January with either Sacred Heart Newry or Assumption Ballynahinch who play on Tuesday.

Éabha Mullan at centre-half back and Grace Draine on the 40 were the stars of the St Conor’s team with good support from top-scoring midfielder Connla Kerr and goalie Ciara O’Neill who pulled off some important saves during the first half before her team got control of the game.

Grace Draine got the opening goal, but Castlewellan were pushing forward strongly with Charly Kelly, Niamh O'Reilly, Cara McAnulty, Amy McElroy and Mia Clancy all catching the eye. However they didn’t get in to score the goal that might have taken them back into the game.

Instead St Conor’s took most of the chances they got over the opening 20 minutes and then pushed on with five more goals before half-time; there was a second for Draine, two for Connla Kerr and one each for Róise Smyth and Ellie McCartney.

That meant they led by 6-3 to 1-2 at the break, Charly Kelly the Castlewellan goal-scorer while Niamh O’Reilly tagged on two points. St Malachy’s fought hard during the second half, but St Conor’s were already home and hosed with Kerr completing her hat-trick in an impressive individual performance.

St Pius X Magherafelt were also in semi-final action on Friday, but they lost in the Fr Davies Cup to St Catherine’s Armagh despite a magnificent 2-6 from Player of the Match Aoife McOscar.

Both her goals came in the first half as well as another from Áine Young, but they still trailed by 3-3 to 2-8 at the break. In the second half, the Armagh side closed down McOscar and held on for a 3-12 to 3-6 win.

The second Fr Davies’ Cup semi-final is also a Magherafelt v Armagh tie with St Mary’s taking on St Patrick’s Keady at the Mid Ulster Sports Arena on Wednesday morning.

Teams

St Conor’s: Conla Kerr 3-4, Ellie McCartney 1-1, Grace Draine 2-1, Róise Smyth 1-0, Ellie McAfee 0-2, Jojo Darragh 0-1

St Malachy’s: Charly Kelly and Amy McElroy 1-1 each, Niamh O'Reilly 0-3

St Conor’s: Ciara O’Neill, Rionach Kearney, Anna Mullan, ⁠Anna O’Neill, Ellie McCartney , Éabha Mullan, Anna Quinn, ⁠Leah Marron, Conla Kerr, Naoise Henry, ⁠Grace Draine, ⁠Ellie McAfee, Sinead O’Connell, Róise Smyth, Colleen Henry

St Malachy’s: Ellie Rose Hynes, Orlaith Sharkey, Mia Clancy, Poipín Murphy, Aimee O’Higgins, Charly Kelly, Enya McCrickard, Gráinne McAleenan, Niamh O’Reilly, Erin Gordon, Cara McAnulty, Amy McElroy, Ruby Murray, Mia McCann, Lucia Higgins.