Hockey: Crescent on course after tough battle with Bandon

Crescent College Comprehensive’s defence of the Munster Senior Schoolgirls Cup remains on course after they dispatched Bandon Grammar with a last-minute winner in West Cork on Wednesday.

Crescent, who are gunning for a fifth straight title and were All-Ireland champions in 2015, needed a brace from Munster U18 captain Niamh O’Keeffe — including a short corner strike after regulation time was up — to win 2-1 and see off a stern challenge from Bandon in the quarter-final battle of the competition favourites.

They’ll now play Villiers in the last four after their fellow Limerick school scored a big result in their first year competing at Senior A level in similarly dramatic fashion. They edged Scoil Mhuire 3-2 in a replay following a scoreless draw first time around, with Muireann Scanlon teeing up Lauren Ryan for the winner five seconds from time after the duo’s previous goals had been cancelled out by Jemma Barry and Nell O’Mahony.