U21B Championship
Quarter-Final
St Paul's 1-18
St John's 5-12
FIRST half goals from Enda McGurk, Caolan Wilson, Lewis Rafferty and Tomas Adams sent the Johnnies on their way to another emphatic victory and put local rivals St Paul's to the sword in their quarter-final clash in the U21B Championship on Wednesday evening.
A goal hungry Johnnies took to the Shaws Road desperate for another thrashing to follow up their opening campaign victory over Con Magees last week which saw the Corrigan Park side put nine goals past their opposition in an empathic victory.
From the off this game had a feisty nature to it, with the sides having a solid tussle in the middle of the park fro the opening possession but it did not take long before Lewis Rafferty retrieved the slíotar and pounced on an anxious St Paul's back-line and put his effort beyond Ciarnán O'Carroll's net.
Oisin McLaren responded with a quick-fire score for the home side and the tie was up and running but it would be the half for the men in blue as they continued to find their range with Wilson finding a great point from a dead-ball to extend his sides lead.
St John's struck a monstrous score from their own half after Ronan Donnelly managed to launch a thunderous effort high and between the uprights for another great score.
From then the game began to get very one-sided in the scoring as St John's began to pull away from their opponents and when Enda McGurk chased his own saved effort to prod it into the net for a second Johnnies green flag the night got worse for the hosts.
The next puck-out was once again caught by a blue jersey and the strike from Caolan Wilson, which initially was struck for an effort over the bar, managed to fall short but deceive O'Carroll in the net and before he knew it the slíotar rested in the back stanchion of the net and the Johnnies had their third goal of the half.
Tomas Adams then found another goal, this time a well worked move from the Johnnies and they made their own luck as he caught the ball and moved it well before bursting the net for a fourth goal inside 22 minutes.
St Paul's struggled to find any rhythm and the metaphorical stuffing was truly knocked out of them as their opponents were almost out of sight going into the latter stages of the half.
Cillian O'Neill did force an score for St Paul's along with a number of Oisin McLaren frees nestling over the bar to make it a much more respectable deficit, but still it remained that 12 separated the sides as they headed for the changing rooms.
BELFAST CLASH: Both sides battled hard but St John's prevailed
The second-half was a much better fight from the red and white hoops as Antrim U20 star Sean Óg McLaren took over the free-taking mantle from his brother as St Paul's continued to press on with great scores from the frees and in the early half they managed five scores without reply thanks to McLaren striking three times and a quick-fire double from brother Oisin.
Although, despite the strong start, the half proved to still be one where the Johnnies would find their rhythm and when they managed to retain possession once more the scores ticked over thanks to the superb accuracy from Tomas Adams despite the increasingly difficult wind that began to rear it's head over the Black Mountain.
The front three all had their tallies when Conan McKinney also planted a great effort over the black spot on the 50th minute.
St Paul's continued to show great spirit and the McLaren brothers added to their tallies with four points between them to once again eat into the deficit and bring it to within nine as the game entered the closing stages.
The Corrigan Park side were determined to find the net once more and when the 2025 All-star Enda McGurk flexed his muscles to pick out an unbelievable pass into the path of Lewis Rafferty, the forward then collected the ball before using his nippy speed to by-pass his marker and get a clear sight at goal where there would only be one winner.
Jay Gault managed to find a white flag raised after a terrific driving run and it did help St Paul's in their unlikely pursuit of a comeback.
The hosts did try and show some late spirit as Sean Óg McLaren stepped up and thundered a 21-yard free into the roof of the net before breathing new hope into his side that a comeback could be on the cards.
Although the Johnnies soon dispatched a couple of great scores from Tomas Adams as they rounded off another terrific evening in the U21B championship.
The men from Corrigan Park will now look to compete in the semi-final in a week's time with their opponents still to be confirmed.
Unfortunately for St Paul's their U21 championship journey ends here, but no doubt some of their bright sparks will be on show in the course of the Intermediate campaign.
ST PAUL'S: C O'Carroll; D Rogers Duffy, O Phillips, C O'Neill 0-1; G Cowan, G Maguire 0-1, O Donnelly; S Burns, B McMorrow, O Cusack; O McLaren 0-8 (0-7f), Sean Óg McLaren 1-8
Subs: Eoin Brown
ST JOHN'S: E Millar; D Mervyn, M Darragh, C McCallin; R Donnelly 0-1, E McGurk 1-0, L McCallin; F McKinney 0-1, J Wilson 0-1; D King, C Wilson 1-1, A Robb 0-1; L Rafferty 2-1, C McKinney 0-1, T Adams 1-5 (0-4f)
Subs: Daniel McKenna, Brian Gough, Fiontann McIlroy
