Lumen Christi College are Ulster champions again!

MFC Sports U14 Development Cup Final

Lumen Christi 3-14

St Patrick’s Banbridge 4-10

Lumen Christi College are Ulster champions again.

Earlier this year, the school’s senior GAA girls team won the prestigious Erne Cup.

Today, the school’s Under-14 girls GAA team followed up that success by winning the MFC Sports Development Cup with a dramatic victory over St Patrick’s College from Banbridge, County Down.

The match, which was won by the Derry side with the last kick of the game, was played at the Meadowbank Sports Arena in Magherafelt.

Both teams had played brilliantly in the earlier rounds and the final was expected to be a close contest – and so it turned out to be.

Lumen Christi started the game very strongly and team captain Clara Casey scored a cracking goal from the throw-in.

The Derry side had a lot of possession in the opening stages of the game and managed to get a number of scores on the board, including another goal from Sophie Holmes.

However, St Patrick’s managed to stay in the game with a couple of goals themselves and the half-time score was 2-07 to 2-05 in Lumen’s favour.

The Banbridge girls started the second half strongly and quickly brought the game level.

However, the Lumen girls fought their back into contention and rattled off five points in quick succession.

It looked at this point as if the match was over – but that was certainly not the case.

St Patrick’s scored two goals in a matter of minutes to take a one point lead and set up an amazing finale.

At this stage, the teams were trading point after point, with Lumen’s goalkeeper Cara O’Neill and her St Patrick’s counterpart both pulling off some great saves.

It looked like the match was heading for extra-time, but just as the referee was preparing to blow the final whistle Clara Casey made yet another storming run and scored a point from a tight angle to secure a memorable victory for her team.

Casey deservedly received the player of the match award but the Lumen girls can all be proud of how they played, with stand-out performances, in particular, from Lucie-Rose Crossan, Mansi Bhavsar, Eve Mallet, Lily Harkin, Lily Gallagher and Sarah McCauley.

Lumen Christi College scorers: Clara Casey 2-6; Sophie Holmes 1-3; Molly Gray 0-2; Emma McCullagh 0-1; Lucy Hunter 0-1; and Eve Mallett 0-1.