MacCumhaills on a roll as they overcome Carndonagh to land U-16 A hurling title 

MacCumhaills’ brilliant season continued at underage hurling as they added the U-16 A championship title to the U-12, U14 and U-18 titles they have already garnered.

It’s a brilliant haul but they were pushed right to the wire by a determined Carn side. Dylan Patton was exceptional for the winners as he hit 1-7 of their total.

His Carn counterpart, Pierce McConalogue, posted 0-8 for the young Inishowen side. 

Carn ‘keeper Stephen Miller also pulled off two great saves in each half to deny MacCumhaills certain goals.

And while scores were scarce, this was still great championship hurling well refereed by James Connors.

MacCumhaills played with the breeze in the opening half with Patton opening the scoring from a free after four minutes.

McConalogue levelled matters two minutes later before Patton scored the point of the half from play after lightning interplay with Mullen and Peter Sweeney.

Patton then made it 0-3 to 0-1 from another free as MacCumhaills threatened to run riot but were repeatedly stopped by a tenacious Carn who fought for every ball.

Patton tacked on two points to leave it 0-5 to 0-2 as McConalogue replied in kind.

And then, in the 25th minute, the crucial score came when a Patton free deceived everyone and crept into the Carn net.

Patton and McConalogue swapped points as the winners led by 1-6 to 0-3 at the break.

But they could only add on three more points into the breeze in the second half as well as hitting seven wides as Carn clawed their way back into the game.

McConalogue and Patton swapped points again and the lively Daimhin Byrne made it 1-7 to 0-4 nine minutes into the second half.

Dylan Doherty and McConalogue made it 1-7 to 0-6 as the game moved into the final quarter.

Ultan Gilligan forced Carn keeper Miller into a superb save and he also stretched MacCumhaill’s lead to 1-8 to 0-6 as their wides mounted.

Dogged Carn were growing into the game and McConalogue made it 1-8 to 0-7 but Patton landed a vital free into the breeze which effectively sealed it for the winners.

Carn kept pressing and McConalogue hit two late points-but time ran out and MacCumhaill’s were deserving if unimpressive winners in a match where their midfielder Thomas McNulty had a fine hour.

MacCumhaills scorers: Dylan Patton 1-7, 6f; Ultan Gilligan 0-1; Daimhin Byrne 0-1;

Carndonagh scorers: Pierce McComalogue 0-8,7f; Dylan Doherty 0-1.

MacCumhaills: Evan McCarron; Conor Gallen, Adam Byrne, Fritz Mac an Ultaigh; Patrick McElhinney, Oisin Mullen, Shay Bradley; Shay McNulty, Thomas McNulty; Dylan Patton, Peter Sweeney, Daimhin Byrne; Ultan Gilligan, Liam Gallen, Sean Óg Hannigan. 

Subs: Alex Browne for Liam Gallen (43), Matthew Dowds for Sean Óg Hannigan (50).

Carndonagh: Stephen Miller; Eoghan Browne, Ruairi Doherty, Finn Duffy; Fergal Diver Hall, Hugh McGinn, Nathan Burke McGuinness; Dylan Doherty, Aaron Diver; Cian Lafferty, Pierce McConalogue, Tom Diver; Daithi Clerkin, Ronan Butler, Darragh Mclaughlin. 

Subs; Luke Butler for Daithi Clerkin (43).

Referee: James Connors (St Eunan’s)