Students show Chiefs who’s boss

Two seven-goal thrillers produced mixed results for Munster’s last sides standing on an eventful Saturday afternoon of Irish cup action. UCC have a home draw against Clontarf to look forward to in the semi-finals of the men’s Irish Trophy on March 19, after they came back from the dead to see off Rathgar Chiefs 4-3 in Dublin. But it was a miserable day for Cork C of I, who threw away a two-goal lead against Cookstown, eventually going down by the same scoreline to exit the Irish Senior Cup in dramatic fashion at Garryduff. For College, it was a second successive triumphant victory far from home, after their win over Raphoe in Donegal seven days earlier. But they had to do it the hard way; Roger Gray’s early drag-flick for UCC was cancelled out by Cian Denham’s roofed deflection, before an excellent Jonny Orr half-volley on the counter and Daire Coady’s smashed corner rebound had the Chiefs 3-1 up at half-time. College had gone to sleep upon taking the lead and now looked set to pay the price. However, up stepped Roger Gray to burn off seven would-be tacklers before cutting across the Chiefs goalkeeper and sweep-reversing to the bottom left corner. The Chiefs appealed vehemently that the Munster U21 skipper has used his feet in the build-up, but the goal stood, and College were handed another lifeline when Andy Gray’s drag-flick hit a Chiefs body on the line. The College skipper stepped up to convert his fifth penalty stroke of the season, but UCC then had to weather more pressure from the hosts as Graham Catchpoke was sin-binned for not retreating. Upon the midfielder’s return, the Chiefs’ Orr saw yellow for the same offence, and College took full advantage, the Gray brothers working a one-two off a long corner before Roger squared for Fionn O’Leary to reverse home the winner with 60 seconds to go. They will now face a ‘Tarf side for whom dangerman Tom Noonan proved too hot to handle for Navan, scoring four in a 6-0 win. South Antrim host Belfast Harlequins in the other semi-final, meaning a possible grudge match could be on the cards in the decider – College blew a 3-1 lead against Quins in Belfast last year to exit this competition on a 4-3 scoreline. There was no good fortune at Garryduff for C of I however, as they contrived to spectacularly shoot themselves in the foot in going down 4-3 to Cookstown on an interesting afternoon for John Jermyn.

The decorated Irish international provided the assist for David Hobbs’ opener and dragged in a trademark goal of his own after the break to seemingly put C of I cruising at 2-0. But he then recklessly gave away the short corner which allowed Andy Barbour to beat Billy Lynch low to his left with a straight shot, before a botched Jermyn aerial turned over possession and eventually ended in Greg Allen deflecting home the equaliser. They struck again immediately as Cookstown robbed the ball following the restart and Mark Crooks careered down the wing before crossing for Allen to apply the finishing touch once more. A shell-shocked C of I got their act together and levelled it again when a ball from the right found Nick Burns at the back post and he swept home. But two minutes later, Thomas Hutchinson — who had during the week expressed his hope of keeping up an excellent goalscoring record on his visits to Cork — sealed victory for the Tyrone men with another straight strike from a corner. Cookstown now host Fingal in the last eight. Domestically, David Lombard and Mark Black scored at the end of each half to help Cork Harlequins shake off a resilient Bandon outfit 2-0. Bandon alleviated their primary problem of corner concession against Quins by keeping the hosts to just four set-pieces, but stuggled to create clear-cut chances of their own. Lombard’s goal came from play just before the break, before Black’s tidy corner deflection finished things off with two minutes remaining. Cork C of I B eked out a first win of the season, 3-1 over Catholic Institute, as the Limerick side replace them at the bottom of the table, with skipper Mark Holmes, Gary Wilkinson and Andrew Daunt finding the target for the hosts. Elsewhere, Three Rock Rovers claimed their third National Indoor Trophy crown in four years at the NBA in Tallaght, defeating YMCA 5-3 in the final. For more details, check out The Hook’s excellent coverage of the event. Irish Senior Cup Rd 2 Cork C of I 3 (D Hobbs, J Jermyn, N Burns) Cookstown 4 (G Allen 2, A Barbour, T Hutchinson); Irish Hockey Trophy, quarter-finals Navan 0 Clontarf 6 (T Noonan 4, G Borland, C Cooney); Rathgar Chiefs 3 (C Denham, J Orr, D Coady) UCC 4 (R Gray 2, A Gray, F O’Leary); Belfast Harlequins 2 Portadown 0; South Antrim 2 Antrim 0; Semi-finals (March 19): UCC vs Clontarf; South Antrim vs Belfast Harlequins; Irish Junior Cup Rd 2 Banbridge 8 (P Doyle 2, D Anderson, D McAnulty, J Burns, C Kelly, R Woods, C McKnight) Bandon 1; Munster Div 1 Cork Harlequins 2 (D Lombard, M Black) Bandon 0; Cork C of I B 3 (M Holmes, G Wilkinson, A Daunt) Catholic Institute 1; National Indoor Trophy finals, National Basketball Arena, Tallaght Semi-finals YMCA 8 (A Walker 4, D Hewett, M Richardson, S Walker, P Powderly) Glenanne 5 (B Parsons 3, E O’Malley, J Brennan); Three Rock Rovers 3 (P Blakeney, G Ringwood, M Maguire) Railway Union 1 (M English); Final Three Rock 5 (P Blakeney 2, R Canning 2, C Huet) YMCA 3 (A Walker, S Walker, D Robinson).