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.

Elsewhere, St Angela’s recorded their first Senior Cup win in the 21st century with a 3-1 replay victory against Laurel Hill Coláiste. Angela’s returned to the A grade after a seven-year absence last term, but this was a long-awaited first win for them at this level after two tense battles with Coláiste.

Chloe Fenton had got Angela’s out of jail in the opener via an equaliser with the final touch of the game in a 2-2 stalemate, and the Cork C of I midfielder’s diving reverse finish to a length-of-the-field counter-attack off a defensive penalty corner highlighted a historic day for the Patrick’s Hill school.

Angela’s will now play Ursulines Thurles in the last eight, with Mount Mercy awaiting the winners in the semi-finals after they dispatched Ashton 7-0. Anne O’Farrell bagged a hat-trick as last year’s finalists made a major statement of intent.

Meanwhile, both Munster sides will be given stern tests of their title credentials in the EY Hockey League this weekend. Cork C of I’s men visit Three Rock Rovers looking to bridge a three-point gap to leaders Monkstown, although they do have a game in hand and the country’s top goalscorers John Jermyn and Julian Dale to rely on.

Cork Harlequins women welcome a Railway Union side who have fallen off the EYHL pace but have lots of firepower in their ranks to Farmer’s Cross. Quins themselves can’t afford any more slip-ups having lost ground to leaders Hermes-Monkstown in recent weeks.

There’s also Irish Junior Cup second round action this weekend, with a handful of Munster sides in action.

Cork Harlequins and Ashton both knocked out fellow Munster teams in round one — Bandon and C of I respectively — but have less familiar foes in the form of Banbridge and Loreto this time around. Cork Harlequins men have a home tie against Glenanne but Bandon are in Belfast to face NICS.

Meanwhile, Quins firsts play UCC in the Peard Cup semi-finals with the winner meeting Cork C of I B in the December 26 decider, after their star-studded outfit eventually broke stubborn Ashton resistance in a 3-0 midweek win.