2-17 0-8
NAOMH Malachi eased into the last eight of the Junior Championship when they defeat St Nicholas at The Grove on Friday evening.
The Courtbane side were rarely threatened over the course of hour and such was their superiority that they had effectively secured victory inside the opening 20 minutes of what proved to be a rather disappointing contest.
The Nicks battled gamely throughout but despite their honest endeavour they were unable to match the energy, pace and scoring power of their opponents.
Despite the 15-point gap at the final whistle, it was the Nicks who were first off the mark when Paddy Murtagh pointed a free but that was soon cancelled out by a Padraig Moley effort on seven minutes. From the restart a high ball was knocked down by Eamonn Agnew into the path of Mark Meegan whose effort found its way past goalkeeper Ciaran Brannigan.
The Nicks responded well and enjoyed their best spell of possession but could only manage to add one point through Murtagh as three further efforts drifted the wrong side of the posts.
After a slow start the Mals finally found their rhythm and had three points in quick succession from Meegan, Colin Rooney and Colin Hoey before Agnew pounced on a poor kick-out to fire home a second goal and make it 2-4 to 0-2.
The North Louth side were dominating the midfield battle and a series of attacks saw them add points from Greene (3) and Rooney (2), Donal Begley and Moley before the break. However, the Nicks responded and kicked the last two points of the half through Murtagh to reduce the gap to 2-11 to 0-4 at the break.
With the result beyond any real doubt at that stage, the second half was a very tame affair as the Malachis appeared to be playing within themselves and were content to see out the game. The Nicks continued to battle but didn’t have to quality to ask any real questions of their opponents.
The Courtbane men did stretch the gap to 17 points at the end of the third quarter with Rooney (3) and Donal Begley (2) sharing the points, with Ciaran O’Brien replying for the Nicks. The Drogheda men did have the better of the final quarter as they landed three points from Murtagh with Greene kicking his fourth for the Mals in response. NAOMH MALACHI: Christopher McCaughley; David Begley, David Rogers, Stephen Burns; Jamie Kelly, Stephen Smith, Ronan Greene 0-4; Padraig Moley 0-2, Christopher Smith; Eamonn Agnew 1-0, Colin Hoey 0-1, Donal Begley 0-3; Mark Meegan 1-1, Ronan McElroy, Colin Rooney 0-6 (3f). Subs: Shane Rogers for C Hoey, Emmet Mullen for J Kelly, Kieran Murtagh for D Rogers.
Ciaran Brannigan; Kieran Floyd, Johnny Carter, Andrew Starrs; Philip Kirwan, Darren Thornton, Ciaran O’Brien 0-1; Declan Heeney, Eddie Carr; Alex Finnegan, Paddy Murtagh 0-7 (5f), Jason Maguire; Jason O’Boyle, John Heeney, Jack Downey.
REFEREE: Noel Hand.