Antrim 2.9 Kildare 1.7 #CelticChallenge

17th June 2018

Antrim 2.9 Kildare 1.7

Antrim Under 16 hurlers booked their place in next week’s semi-final of the Celtic Challenge when they beat Kildare in Saturday’s quarter final at Inniskeen. Leading by eight points at one stage the Leinster side fought back to within two during the second half, but the Antrim boys kept their cool and finished strong to win by five in the end.

Kildare opened the scoring in the third minute with a free and added another from play soon after to take a two point lead. The Saffrons opened their account in the fifth minute with points from the dead ball and open play from midfielder Paudie Mc Gilligan to tie the scores. Both teams exchanged points before Antrim scored the opening goal through centre-forward Enda Og McGarry and with their tails now up they grabbed another goal shortly after to stretch their lead to six, o Duffin finishing a fine move by corner forward Colla Mc Donnell. Antrim stretched their lead to eight and appeared to be in total control, but Kildare clawed a goal back on the stroke of half time to cut the arrears to 5.

The second half saw Kildare stage a comeback and with Antrim feeling the effects of a five week exam break the Lillywhites cut the deficit to just two points. However this was as close as the Leinster side would come and with Bailey Graham in goals in fine form and the back line excellent the young Saffrons started to edge clear again . An excellent point from 90 yards by Mc Gilligan and scores from McDonnell, o Duffin and McGarry capped of a fine display and saw the through to next week’s semi-final.

In the other quarter finals played on Saturday Armagh beat Westmeath by 3-9 to 0-7; Tyrone beat Roscommon 2-11 to 1-10 while Laois beat Carlow 3-10 to 2-11

ANTRIM

Bailey Graham (Loch Mór Dál gCais)

Eoin May (Rossa)

Barry Scott (Dunloy)

Eoin Kennedy (Naomh Eanna)

Caoimhin Heaney (Michael Davitt’s)

Rory Mc Closkey (Loughgiel)

Daniel Murray (Lamh Dhearg)

Paudie Mc Gilligan (Dunloy)

Ciaran Magill (Glenarm)

Dylan Devlin (Loughgiel)

Enda Og Mcgarry (Loughgiel)