County Down's Red High through to the Mageean Cup final

Last night’s Mageean Cup semi final between St. Louis Grammar School, Ballymena and St. Patrick’s Grammar School, Downpatrick (Red High) was a tense affair, played with significant pace to cause players to fall towards the end of the game with muscle cramp despite the evening air dropping to a very cool 6.5 C. It was predicted by some Club friends of Sean and Adam that the ‘Red High’ would have the edge but it was unclear, at this point, where that might manifest itself or if indeed that would be true.

With largely nothing more than a breath of air that would pose no threat to the long shooters, the Dub Arena at Queen’s playing fields cranked on the floodlights and as the spectators milled into their seats in the stand, referee Kevin Parke from St. Enda’s rolled in the sliotar to start the game sharply at 7pm.

The first half set up the crowd for a terrific display of fast paced hurling and ultimately resembled an arms race as St. Louis’ Jack McCloskey and Red High’s Tom McGrattan traded points and early goals in a battle for forward’s supremacy. As the erratic scoreboard eventually incremented its way to a half time score of St. Louis 1-11 Red High 1-10, both sides sought to regroup in the break and apply whatever ‘intel’ the management team had gleaned from the first half.

With the second half underway and an occasional puff of wind to help the temperature drop a little more , it was apparent that the pace had levelled out and a lot of game time was taken up with an attacking-defence strategy, each side refusing to take a risk, smothering any open ball quickly and looking for the long ball point. St. Louis appeared to have the upper hand in this tactic but Red High’s Pearce Smyth was on top form and kept his side level pegging with two terrific long haul points travelling in from the city side across St. Louis’ bar. Smyth’s performance didn’t stop there, as he maintained a strong guard of the net, quelling attacks directly to goal and showing little in the way of intimidation from the Louis sharp shooting McCloskey. As Referee Parke blew for the second water break, the scores stood at St. Louis 1-14 Red High 1-15. This was a watershed moment for Red High as they huddled with a one point lead.

The county Antrim side took no time in levelling the scores on the return to play with a point from McCloskey but the point of the match came from a St. Louis fed ball that was air mailed going wide at their left half forward position but an out of place Ronan McCollum skilfully looped it back in with his stick and after a short carry, made a great point from a tight angle. St Louis’ artistry almost overshadowed some notable game time from Red High’s Oisin Coulter , whose presence around the field gave St. Louis a real challenge, a man that was comfortable supporting the attack as he was dropping back to shore up defence.

Red High’s Oisin Coulter and Tom McGrattan would inch their side once again past St. Louis and it was being felt in the stand as the Louis supporters watched with a quieter demeanour. Although the early goals set both sides on their way, it was a tidy threatening pass from Tom McGrattan to Finn Turpin under the significant pressure of a semi final game that would resonate the most as the stand out goal and seal the game for Red High. Despite a late St. Louis point on the inside of the final whistle, Red High maintained their edge with a sound defence spearheaded by Deaglan Mallon and backed up by Ryan O’Neill, Dara Coulter and Jude Roddy in the full back line up to deny any attempt at drop shots into the box for a last minute salvage by the Ballymena lads and have now secured their first ever place in the Mageean Cup final. Final score St. Louis 1-17 St. Patrick’s 2-17. Congratulations to Red High and commiserations to St. Louis who put on a tremendous performance for everyone’s enjoyment.

St. Louis starting panel:

Callum Mullan, Dara Martin, Kevin O’Boyle, Pearce Patterson, Daire McMullan 0-2 (1f), Connor Dickson, Conall McCloskey, Finn Henry, Aodhan McGarry 0-2 (1 sideline cut), Ryan McQuillan 0-1, Calum Higgins, Darragh Patterson 0-1f, Ronan McCollum 0-5 (1f), Jack McCloskey 1-4 (4f), Oisin McCamphill. [Sub T McFerran 0-1]

St. Patrick’s starting panel:

Pearse Smyth 0-2f, Jude Roddy, Ryan O’Neill, Dara Coulter, Sean Mageean, Deaglan Mallon, Conor Leneghan, Tiernan Connolly 0-1, Finn Turpin 1-2, Michael Dorrian0-1, Adam Rogan, Tom McGrattan 1-9 (5f), Oisin Coulter (0-2), Rossa McGrath, Sean McCarthy.

Here are a few photos under the floodlights to record Sean, Adam and the rest of the Red High’s team’s journey to the final.