Brilliant Loreto regain Ulster senior title
Ladies PPS Ulster U20 A final
Loreto College, Cavan 5-8
St Mary's, Magherafelt 1-6
Loreto College Cavan, were looking to win back their Ulster A title that they lost narrowly last year to Our Lady's, Castleblayney, their old rivals, who subsequently went on to win the All-Ireland title.
Their opposition was St Mary's Magherafelt, playing in their first ever A final, who had beaten the Ulster and the All-Ireland champions in the semi-final, 3-6 to 2-8.
Loreto had a comprehensive run to the final. They finished top of their group, and then had a semi-final victory over St Patrick's, Knock by 6-9 to 1-7.
The eventual winners led from start to finish. They had the perfect start to the game when, with one minute on the clock, Katie McGahern (Cornafean) was fouled in the square, and Sarah Clarke stepped up to hit the bottom right corner from the resulting penalty, and from here, they led for the entire tie.
Ellie Brady, a county senior panelist who playing has played every game so far for Cavan senior ladies, was the captain of the side and the Payer of the Match award went to Sarah Clarke from Cavan Gaels, who is also a member of the Cavan senior ladies panel.
The side is managed by Áine Shannon, with Conor Maguire as team trainer.
With one minute on the clock, Sarah Clarke found the back of net with a penalty, and then they had two points on the bounce from Kate Fegan and Ellie Brady.
Magherafelt opened their scoring in the 11th minute from a free from their captain, but it was all Cavan they finished the first half of two more goals – Loreto, Cavan hit the net in 19th minute from Katie McGahern, after good combination play from Kate Fegan and Kayla Barkley. And then they got their third goal of the half from Fegan after she was found unmarked in the square with a brilliant pass from Sarah Clarke.
That major left them ahead at half-time, 3-4 to 0-3, even though they played for 10 minutes with a player down after Ailbhe Kennedy was shown a yellow card towards the end of the first half.
The second half followed a similar pattern. Magherafelt opened to scoring with a point from Erin Stewart, but the Cavan ladies added 1-3 unanswered.
Two minutes after the restart, Kate Fegan picked up the ball 55 metres out from the goals, eased past the defence and hit the back of the net.
Katie O’Meara then hit 1-3, combining well with clubmate Clarke for the goal.
The Derry girls pulled back a goal but the Cavan side finished strongly, with Clarke, Fegan and O’Meara the scorers-in-chief in what was an impressive all-round team performance.
See next week's print edition for more.