St. Mary's Magherafelt set up derby quarterfinal at Owenbeg after MacRoy Cup win

Danske Bank MacRory Cup Play-off

St Mary’s Magherafelt 0-11 

St Patrick’s Cavan 0-6

IT was always on the cards and St Mary's Magherafelt made it happen despite losing Éamon Young to a second yellow card as early as the 21st minute of this Danske Bank MacRory Cup play-off in Rossa Park Magherafelt.
St Mary’s held a lead of 0-4 to 0-1 when the red card was shown, but they pushed on to open a six points' advantage before the break, shut the door on a weak enough Cavan effort and set up a tasty quarter-final derby with St Patrick’s Maghera this Friday evening in Owenbeg (7.30pm).
St Mary's dominated the first half; they were more direct in picking out a route to goal and they had more options for players running off the shoulder into threatening positions. 
After the red card, they curbed their attacking instincts a little, but still stayed on the front foot and frustrated their opponents who struggled to get any change out of the Magherafelt defence.
That said however, Cavan had a couple of half chances at a goal, one early one well blocked near the goal line. They didn't really take on players and push into the danger areas until after the break and even then they couldn't get much out of strong St Mary's back line. Magherafelt contained them and got the end result they needed.
Conall Higgins opened the scoring from a free in the 5th minute and then pointed from a mark a minute later. Another minute went past before Pearse O’Neill opened his account with a point from the left wing after good work from Rory Small.
Cavan didn’t get their first score until 14 minutes in when Darragh Noonan popped over after a goal chance had been closed out. But Cathair McBride fisted Magherafelt's fourth score before Young was sent off.
Despite the numerical disadvantage St Mary’s doubled their lead in the five minutes before the break with frees from O’Neill and Higgins and a fine long range point from midfielder James Sargent following nice inter-changing down Magherafelt's left wing. That made it 0-7 to 0-1 at half-time.
Cavan upped their game after the break, but only managed two points from Darragh Noonan frees during the third quarter. Higgins responded with his fourth point in the 47th minute after another good run from Small. 
Although Cavan closed it to 0-8 to 0-4 with another Noonan free ten minutes from time, the visitors never threatened to finish strongly and St Mary’s killed the game with a free from Pearse O'Neill. Higgins caught the kick-out, charged down the left wing and finished his run with a fisted point.
Magherafelt were home and hosed although Cavan tagged on points from Noonan and Ben Tully with O'Neill's fourth point in between them. 
Already everyone was looking ahead to the derby with Maghera in Owenbeg on Friday evening.

St Mary’s: C Higgins 0-5, 3 frees, P O’Neill 0-4, 1 free, C McBride and J Sargent 0-1 each.
St Patrick’s: D Noonan 0-5, 4 frees, B Tully 0-1.

St Mary’s: Karl Campbell, Charlie Curley, Daragh Casey, Ben McLarnon, Luke Grant, Rory Small, Jack Harney, James Sargent, Cathair McBride, Eamon Young, Caolán Higgins, Charlie Mulholland, Patrick Birt, Conall Higgins, Pearse O’Neill
Subs: Michael Higgins for P Birt (50), Darragh McKenna for C Curley (56), Shea McGeehan for C Mulholland (57), Ronán Doherty for J Harney (58), Dara McGuckin for Caolán Higgins (58)
St Patrick’s Cavan: Freddie Clarke, Cillian Murphy, Finn Buckley, Philip Shannon, Cian McCrystal, Ben Smith, Senan Sheils, Charlie Gannon, Darragh Noonan, Michael Monaghan, Joshua Shehu, Ben Tully, Conor Sharpe, Joe Dugdale, Conor Tynan
Subs: Fiachra Brady for C Murphy (HT), Shea McFaul for M Monaghan (34), Daragh Moran for C Tynan (46), Joshua Dunne for C Glennon (54)