McDermott the ace for Ballinagh
The elusive corner-forward notched eight points, four from play, to help deny the underdogs a shock win after they had plundered goals through Colin Kiernan and Ben Conaty.
Elsewhere, it took an injury-time free from Stephen Monaghan to secure a dramatic 1-13 to 1-13 draw for Ramor Utd against Castlerahan. Earlier Ramor midfielder Anton O’Reilly had goaled to propel his side into a 1-7 to 0-8 interval lead.
Castlerahan stuck to their task, however, and a classy Fergal Flanagan goal 90 seconds from time had Ramor sweating before O’Reilly’s last gasp effort.
Ace freetaker Barry Reilly – with six points – was the inspiration behind Kingscourt’s 0-12 to 0-7 win over Crosserlough who were left to rue a penalty miss by senior county half-back Darragh McVitty midway through the second-half after the teams were tied at 0-5 apiece at the interval.
Former kingpins Gowna are still on course to regain their former lustre after an impressive 2-13 to 1-9 win over an albeit weak Redhills outfit.
Squandermania was the name of the game in the meeting of rank outsiders Killygarry and Drumalee as the former won out by the odd point in 15 with both sides contributing equally to a tally of 22 wides.
Meanwhile, two goals either side of the interval by world handball champion Paul Brady helped greatly in propelling Mullahoran to a hard fought 3-16 to 1-12 win over Drumgoon.
In the only other Cavan SFC tie played over the weekend, Lacken upset the books with a hat-trick of second-half goals helping them to a 4-6 to 0-11 win over match favourites Lavey.
