College girls ease into the last eight

In a match that was dubbed the tie of the round by many other schools in the province, the College girls put in an immense performance.

On what was a wintry afternoon in Armagh, the visitors opened their account within two and a half minutes of the whistle. Attacking from the outset, the Lurgan players won a short corner from which captain Hannah Grieve made no mistake with a well placed shot past a stranded Armagh defence.

Goal number two came on nine minutes into the first half when Julie Morrow intercepted a clearance and slipped the ball to Kathryn Edgar who buried it in the back of the net from close range.

A third goal followed almost immediately when Hannah Grieve sent a superbly weighted pass for Julie Morrow to find and slip past the keeper, but after initially awarding the goal, the umpire reversed the decision.

The College team were not to be deterred from their goal and a great run by Kathryn Edgar picked out Julie Morrow moments later to score an entirely legal third goal.

After half time, Armagh re-grouped and came out with a new ferocity and both teams exchanged possession for the first 10 minutes. However, the pace that the College team played at appeared to wear down Armagh’s defence and mid-way through the second half Judith Edgar sent a spectacular ball down the right for Julie Morrow to run onto. Julie drew the keeper before picking out Kathryn Edgar who once again made no mistake.

By this stage Lurgan were playing some impressive hockey and passing the ball with pin point accuracy. The final nail in the coffin for Armagh came from Alex Hurst who set up Samantha Bann on the left midfield area of the pitch. Samantha quickly found Julie Morrow who played a neat reverse stick pass to Kathryn Edgar who passed to Jenny Morrow who drew the keeper and unselfishly passed to older sister Julie who placed the ball into an open net.

This was a huge squad performance from every player and the girls find themselves once again through to the quarter final stage. They will now meet Wallace High School, Lisburn at the end of January.