Coola Vocational school booked their place in this year 1st and 2nd year final with a hard fought win over a very good Colaise Mhuire Ballymote side in a wind swept Coola park today. Ballymote had an unbelieveable start with 3 goals scored inside the first 10 mins all coming from the boot of Adam Cunnane who was on fire. Ballymote cut Coola open in this period with Barry Cafferky and Oisin Conlon providing a number of excellent defence cutting passes to put Cunnane in. Coola then started to get to grips picking off two points one from Seamus Hailstone and the other Michael Barry. The game ebbed and flowed for a period after this until Ballymote struck with goal number four leaving the score mid way through the half 4-0 to 0-2. Coola then hit the back of the net through Hailstones and picked off another two scores to leave 7 between the sides. Ballymote added another 2 scores through Cunnane who was unmarkable in the opening period. Coola tapped on a free from Hailstones and Patrick Benson scored a fine point before Hailstones buried his second goal on the stroke of half time. Score 4-2 to 2-6
The second period started with both teams giving it everything Ciaran Dorrian scored two excellent points to put Four between the sides and his direct running was creating a great platform for the ballymote side. Coola for whom Benson and Barry were becoming more influential started to get to grips in the middle of the park and Dara Kelly was working tirelessly also for the East Sligo outfit. During the middle third period of the second half the game changed. Aaron lang had a great chance to hit the back of the net for Ballymote after steven willis played a poor ball across his own goal however his shot hit the crossbar and went over. Barry and Benson kicked points to bring the deficit back to three before Eoin Heslin levelled matters with a superbly struck goal. With the game in the melting pot both teams had great chances but some excellent goalkeeping from stephen fallon in the Ballymote goals and top class defending from Stephen willis at the other end kept things even. Benson then kicked a superb free with 10 mins remaining to put Coola in front for the first time. This broke Ballymote's reserve and Coola started to dominate. A brilliant finish from David Curran with 6 mins remaining made the lead to great for Ballymote and while they tried hard for the remaining period they could not close the four point gap to leave the final score. Coola 4-10 Ballymote 4-6