Foyle teenagers lose narrowly

FOYLE & Londonderry College’s Northern Bank Schools Cup hopes were dashed for another year when they narrowly lost 3-0 to Banbridge Academy, at Judges Road, in what was an entertaining game despite the low scoreline.

The Foyle team started brightly with Neil Burns, Kyle Henderson and Oisin Duffy all asking questions of the well-organised Banbridge Academy defence.

On a rare break out from defensive duties, Banbridge took play deep into Foyle College territory.

After fifteen minutes of the game the visitors were awarded a penalty which Aaron Kennedy, their ebullient scrum half, was delighted to convert and give his team a 3-0 lead.

Banbridge continued to dominate at this stage and went close with a long range penalty attempt after twenty minutes.

Foyle responded to this near miss with two penalty attempts, neither of which was successful.

With the halftime score at 3-0 in favour of Banbridge there was still all to play for in the second half.

Foyle threw everything into attack in the early stages of the second half. The visitors defended vigorously and had Aaron Kennedy and Marc Stevenson to thank for some fine pressure relieving kicks.

This encouraged Banbridge and eventually they got enough possession to enable them to take play into Foyle territory.

It was now the turn of the home team to defend and they did so for most of the final quarter of the game.

There were no further scores which ensured it was Banbridge that celebrated on the final whistle with their 3-0 win and assurance of a place in the draw for 4th Round of the Northern Bank Ulster Schools’ Cup.

Blair McDonald, Rory Thompson and David McKeown all contributed greatly to the success of the Banbridge Academy team while Stephen Chi, Tobias Anderson and Calvin Jones all impressed with their performances for the Foyle College team.