Abbey VS beaten by goal-hungry Lecale in Rafferty Cup final

Lecale Trinity, despite going scoreless for 36 minutes in the middle period of Thursday’s final, are Danske Bank Rafferty Cup winners for the first time.

Coming just three days after the school collected the Danske Bank Loch an Iúir title, the East Down school hit a goal and three points over the opening nine minutes.

Abbey Vocational School then wrestled control of the game from them and scored 11 points before an amazing turnaround in the 46th minute saw Lecale hit the net twice inside 65 seconds and then take off over the final ten minutes to collect the trophy.

The final was played in a downpour, and although the south Donegal side opened the scoring with a point in the second minute from Cian Gallagher, Lecale hit back with three points inside four minutes from Conor Murphy (free), Darragh McAlinden and James Greene.

Then Abbey gradually turned the screw and scored six times to take a lead of 0-7 to 1-3 into the break, three of those scores came from Jay Cullen, with Ryan Quinn chipping in with a couple.

That lead extended by five points during the opening 11 minutes of the second half, with two two-pointers from Jay Cullen, and Abbey seemed to be in control.

However, the second turning point arrived a few minutes later with two well-executed goals from off-the-shoulder running.

Callum Curran hit the net for the first one, and then Callum Cochrane grabbed a second just over a minute later to bring the sides level on 3-3 to 0-12.

Abbey refused to bend and, in the 52nd minute, they were back in the lead with a point from Cullen.

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Darragh McAlinden equalised two minutes later, and then Shea King stepped up with two scores to give the Down side the lead with just a minute left on the clock.

Cian Gallagher managed a point in reply, but Lecale worked the kickout and retained possession over the remaining few minutes to spark exciting celebrations despite the weather.

Lecale: Callum Curran 2-0, Callum Cochrane 1-0, Darragh McAlinden and Shea King 0-2 each, Conor Murphy (f) and James Greene 0-1 each.

Abbey VS: Jay Cullen 0-10,2tp,3f; Ryan Quinn and Cian Gallagher 0-2 each.