Impressive Dalriada now in quarter finals

The game was played on a wet pitch with a biting wind blowing straight down the pitch. Foyle elected to play with the wind in the first half but were quickly stunned when almost immediately from the kick off Angus Johnston put Gavin McCaughern through a hole allowing him to sprint clear and deliver a scoring pass to Stewart Moore who dived in to the corner.

This spurred Foyle into action and they pressurised Dalriada into spilling the ball in attack. From this mistake Foyle collected the ball and forced their way over to the left of the post allowing the Foyle kicker an easy conversion.

With the wind being a factor in the game, Thomas Hunter, the Dalriada fullback, was busy dealing with the arial bombardment and from a successful counterattack which continued into the Foyle 22 the pack drove their way over the line with Aaron Christie getting the touchdown.

Moore was successful with the conversion as the halftime whistle went.

Foyle started the second half strongly preventing Dalriada getting any possession or territory.

As the Dalriada defence became frustrated they lost their shape allowing Foyle to force their way close to the Dalriada line but the game was stopped for an extended period due to a refereeing injury.

Thanks to some excellent physiotherapy treatment he was able to continue but the long break had obviously given the Foyle team a chance to recharge their energy and almost immediately broke through some weak tackles to score and tie the score.

This was however their last visit to the Dalriada half as the Ballymoney boys ensured they played out the rest of the game in Foyle territory thanks to the wind and some strong running from Denis Posternak and Thomas Hunter.

Two further tries from the forwards through Aaron Christie and Alan Montgomery sealed the result for Dalriada and with only seconds to go Stewart Moore was on the end of a flowing backs move to touch down and kick his forth conversion of the day leaving the score 12-33 and ensuring Dalriada reached the quarter-final draw.

The Danske Bank Schools’Cup Quarter-Final draw sees Dalriada play Bangor on 20th February