Ruairí hits hat-trick as Gaels breeze past Ballycastle
Ruairí McDonnell scored 3-4 for Northern Gaels in their victory over Ballycastle in Saturday's Division 4 derby clash.
There was a big turnout of supporters for a North Mayo meeting of neighbours on Saturday evening and while the game was well fought out, it ultimately ended in a comfortable win for the visiting Northern Gaels over Ballycastle, Score were hard come by in the early stages and while Ballycastle were the first to register a point, with Fergal Forde on target after 10 minutes, it took until the 17th minute for the Lacken-Kilfian outfit to raise their first flag, through a free by Ruairí McDonnell. But McDonnell’s score sparked the visitors into life and by half-time he had scored 1-4 of his side’s 1-6, with a goal at the other end by corner-forward Lorcan O’Donnell just before the interval helping to keep Ballycastle in the game.
Leading by five points, Northern Gaels continued to make the running in the second-half and a fine defensive display saw them restrict Ballycastle to just one more point, which was scored by former Mayo senior Micheál Forde.
Ruairí McDonnell, operating at corner-forward for Gaels, continued to prove a handful and added two more goals to the one he scored in the first-half, scores that rewarded hard defensive work carried out by the likes of Fergal McHale, Liam Ruddy and Shane Loughney, while there were numerous threatening runs forward by James Forde which ultimately ended in the wing-back scoring a fantastic goal.
Despite a lot of hard work from Fergal Forde and by Micheál Forde around the middle of the field, not to mention some great saves by goalkeeper Jason O’Neill, this wasn’t Ballycastle’s evening, as Northern Gaels finished winners with 15 points to spare.
Scorers – Northern Gaels: Ruairí McDonnell 3-0-4, James Forde 1-0-1, John McLoughlin 0-0-2, Marc Munnelly 0-0-1.
Ballycastle: Lorcan O’Donnell 1-0-0, Fergal Forde and Micheál Forde 0-0-1 each.
Ballycastle: Jason O’Neill; Liam Og Barrett, Keith Carden, Dean Kelly; Shane Maughan, Micheal Tighe, Tom Tomas; Micheal Forde, Finn McDermott Cox; Dermot Kelly, Fergal Forde, Lorcan O’Donnell; Eoin McDonnell, Shane Grier, Thomas McNulty. Subs: M Ruddy (for Grier), D Stadler (for McNulty), P Healy (for D Kelly).
Northern Gaels: Darragh Devine; Liam Ruddy, Shane Loughney, Fergal McHale; James Forde, Mark McDonnell, Owen Loughney; Craig McCormick, Conor McHale; Marc Munnelly, Tommy Clarke, Ciaran Loughney; John McLoughlin, Cathal Boland, Ruairí McDonnell. Subs: P Murphy (for Boland), JP Walsh (for McLoughlin), D Loughney (for F McHale), S Williams (for McCormick).
