Ardara’s brace of goals inside of the opening 10 minutes helped ensure they left Ballybofey with the two game points.
Sean Mac Cumhaills 1-11 Ardara 2-12
Strikes from C.J Molloy and John Ross Molloy had the visitors in a comfortable five-point lead with Stephen Mulligan pointing from a free for Mac Cumhaills between the goals.
Ardara’s first point came from Lorcan O’Donnell and Gary Wilson replied with a sublimely taken free from the side line as the hosts looked to get into the game.
Mac Cumhaills soon found themselves on the wrong side of a 7 point gap when Ardara went on to record the next two scores from C.J Molloy and Kelvin Slowey.
Gary Wilson from play and Stephen Mulligan from a free responded for the home side but a free from Gareth Concarr tightened the grip.
Both teams traded frees before the break with C.J Molloy from play and Mulligan from another free after Aaron Kelly was taken down.
Faced with a mountain to climb the incentive was on the Mac Cumhaills side to get back into the game and salvage something but it was Ardara first with the scoring for the second half through a C.J Molloy free.
Padhraic Patton won the hosts a free and the clinical Mulligan pointed again.
Mac Cumhaills big breakthrough came before 40 mins when Aaron Kelly’s fine run at goal forced a parry from the Ardara ‘keeper but Kelly was on hand to tap the rebound into the corner of the net and put Mac Cumhaills back to within 3 points.
The newly-introduced Barney Lafferty pointed from play and Ardara responded with a Conncarr free to keep the margin at three points.
A Gary Wilson pass from a free found Benny Mc Laughlin who pitched over for his first point but another Concarr free kept the score to the visiting side’s favour.
A mammoth Steven O’Reilly point soon had Mac Cumhaills believing with 15 minutes to go but Ardara kept their distance and this time it was a point from Brendan Mc Nelis.
A Benny Mc Laughlin free for the home side and a Kieron Breslin point added to the scoreboard helped keep things ticking over for both sides but two efforts from Mac Cumhaills just went begging. Darren O’Leary pointed from play in extra time but a Paddy Mc Grath fisted point sealed the win for the visitors.
Sean Mac Cumhaills: Chris Patton; Conor Griffin, Martin Gallagher, Joe Dunnion; Ronan McMenamin, John Lynch, Aaron Kelly (1-0); Gary Dunnion, Steven O’Reilly (0-1); Rory Dunleavy, Benny McLaughlin (0-2, 1f), Adam Lynch; Gary Wilson (0-2, 1f), Stephen Mulligan (0-4, 4f), Padhraic Patton. Subs: Brian Patton for Adam Lynch, Barney Lafferty (0-1) for Mulligan, Darren O’Leary (0-1) for Mc Menamin.
Ardara: Cathal Gallagher; Kelvin Slowey (0-1), Kenny Doherty, Nicholas Maguire; Paddy McGrath (0-1), Johnny Herron, John Ross Molloy (1-1); Brendan McNelis (0-1), Simon Breslin; Paul Waters, Gareth Concarr (0-3, 3f), Kieron Breslin (0-1); Peter McHugh, C.J Molloy (1-3. 2f), Lorcan O’Donnell (0-1). Subs: Declan Gavigan for S.Breslin, Kevin Breslin for McHugh
