LCC Group Tyrone Senior Football Championship semi-finals
Errigal Ciaran 0-11 Dromore 0-10; Carrickmore 0-11 Clonoe 0-8
The wait goes on for a team to retain the O’Neill Cup as 2021 champions Dromore fell short against a hungry and ruthless Errigal Ciaran side.
The Canavan brothers, Darragh and Ruairi, led the charge for the Dunmoyle men on a wet night in Healy Park, scoring 0-8 between them with cousin Tommy also chipping in with two points.
Indeed, Peter Harte was the only non-Canavan to score for Errigal, who will now meet fierce rivals Carrickmore in the Tyrone SFC final on Sunday, October 30.
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Carmen, who were the last team to retain the Tyrone Senior Football Championship title back in 2005, defeated Clonoe in the first semi-final 0-11 to 0-8 at Pomeroy.
Holders Dromore were slow out of the traps in Sunday’s second semi-final on Sunday night and Errigal took full advantage with Darragh Canavan (two) and Tommy Canavan registering early points with Emmett McNabb opening Dromore’s account with a great score on 10 minutes.
He followed it up with a free before Ruairi Canavan danced through the Dromore defence and fired over a brilliant point from play.
When Darragh added a '45 moment later, Errigal were three clear, but they kept their foot to the throttle playing with the aid of a strong breeze.
Another free from Tommy Canavan moved them four ahead before Darragh split the posts with an outrageous point from play on 22 minutes.
Dromore finally got themselves going with Peter Teague leading the way for Ryan McMenamin’s side. He hit a fine point on the run while Ryan McCusker and Emmett McNabb also raised white flags.
A free on the cusp of half-time from Darragh Canavan ensured Errigal held a three-point cushion at the break.
The elements were in Dromore’s favour for the second half, but their shot selection wasn’t the best at times as they dropped a number of efforts into the arms of Darragh McAnenly.
Harte kicked a free on the restart to moved Errigal into a four-point lead once more, but Mark Harte and Adrian O’Donnell’s men only scored two more points for the remainder of the contest.
They were two scores right out of the top drawer by the Canavan brothers. Darragh took collection of a ball from Harte and fired over from an acute angle while Ruairi registered Errigal’s final score of the game following a great pass from the impressive Joe Oguz.
Yet, Dromore threw everything at their opponents with Teague and McNabb in the closing stages helping to reduce the deficit to three points with five minutes of stoppage time remaining.
Wing-back Odhran Rafferty had a sniff of goal when he stormed through in injury-time, but he blasted his shot over the crossbar.
A late free from Teague left the minimum between the sides, but referee Shane Meehan allowed the holders one more play to salvage extra-time.
Alas, Dromore couldn’t engineer another shot at the posts as they lost their grip on the O’Neill Cup.
Earlier in the day, Carrickmore saw off a determined challenge from Clonoe at Pomeroy.
The sides were level 0-5 each at the break, but Carmen pulled clear after the break with Lorcan McGarrity hitting 0-6.
Clonoe will now need to defeat Moy in the Division One play-off to avoid relegation from the senior grade.
Errigal Ciaran scorers: Darragh Canavan 0-6 (0-2fs, 0-1 45), Ruairi Canavan 0-2, Tommy Canavan 0-2 (0-1f), Peter Harte 0-1 (0-1f).
Dromore scorers: Emmett McNabb 0-4 (0-1f), Peter Teague 0-4 (0-2fs), Ryan McCusker 0-1, Odhran Rafferty 0-1.
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