GAA: Terrific starts for Moy, Harps and Pomeroy men in league

Moy enjoyed a winning start to life in the second tier following a 1-11 to 0-10 success over Cookstown, at Cullen Park.

Colm and Seam Cavanagh traded early points with former Tyrone star Owen Mulligan and Barry Potter before a Conall Duffy goal propelled the Sky Blues into a 0-7 to 1-6 interval lead.

Minutes into the second half Cookstown net-minder Donovan McGuckin denied Colm Cavanagh a goal with a cracking save before Duffy stretched the visiting lead to three.

Cookstown retaliated with further points from Shea McGarrity and James McGahan but they only managed one further score in the closing seventeen minutes as the Cavanaghs and Eunan Deeney harvested away scores to secure victory.

Dungannon’s hopes of launching the season in winning mode were crushed at O’Neill Park when a late Dan Lowe penalty helped Stewartstown to a 3-7 to 2-9 win.

Patrick Quinn goaled on three minutes for the opening score, with Patrick Molloy knocking over a free as the hosts settled quickest.

Gritty Stewartstown, however, responded with points from Tiernan Rushe and Lowe before the Tyrone U21 star scythed through the home defence to blast to the net on 14 minutes.

David Walsh and Quinn landed home points before Anton Coyle punished some sloppy defending on 23 minutes with a second goal that allowed the Harps to hold sway 1-5 to 2-4 at the midway stage.

The opening four points of the restart were shared between Molloy, Kiefer Morgan and the on song Lowe before Padraig McNulty’s goal levelled proceedings 2-7 apiece.

Lowe’s penalty nudged Stewartstown three ahead again and even though Dungannon mustered late points from young Molloy they fell short.

Pomeroy staved off a late rally from Brackaville to pick up a deserving 1-11 to 1-9 victory, at Plunkett Park.

Ollie McCreesh, Hugh McNamee and John Loughran all managed points in response to points from Martin Gervin and Sean Corr before a Loughran goal eased the Plunkett’s 1-7 to 0-4 clear.

Corr and Gervin hit the opening three points on the resumption to make a game of it and, while Pomeroy answered with two successive strikes a Corr major on 45 minutes left the score reading 1-9 to 1-8.

The black-carding of Martin Gervin and McNamee hampered both teams until substitute Kevin Armstrong hit a late insurance score.

Aghaloo made an encouraging start to their intermediate campaign with a 1-10 to 1-9 triumph on their travels to Eskra.

The Emmetts shaded the first segment 5-4 thanks mainly to the accuracy of Joe McCarroll with the O’Neill’s answering through Ruairi McGlone (0-3) and Gary O’Gorman.

It remained on a knife-edge throughout the second half with Niall McElroy and three O’Gorman points illustrating the visitors’ ambitions until a Conor O’Hagan goal on 43 minutes lifted the siege.

Aghaloo, nonetheless, remained focussed and, when McGlone found the net they were on their way. The Tyrone U21 starlet accounted for 1-4 of the Aghaloo tally.

Goals from Cathal Donaghy and Nathan Kelly allowed Loughmacrory to underline the competitive edge in this division as they ousted Donaghmore 2-7 to 0-10.

Deasun Quinn and Cormac McCann featured one the away returns and while Gussy McAleer was red carded by referee Stephen Campbell the St Teresa’s held on to win.

Urney chalked up an impressive win against Derrylaughan with Jamie McAleer and Fergal McNulty playing lead roles for the hosts against a Barry’s side who poached goals from Seamus McCann and Shea Coney.

Moortown were also round one winners thanks to a 0-11 to 0-8 victory at Derrytresk.

Ryan Kelly, Shane McKeown, Jack McGuigan and Peter Devlin featured on the points tally with Derrytresk registering through Niall Gavin, Aidan Gavin and Patrick Bell.

The northern Tyrone derby ended with a win for over Gortin over Aghyaran.