A general view of MacCumhaill Park. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Dalata Hotels Group Ulster U20 Football Championship
Donegal 3-23 Down 1-11
Antrim 0-17 Fermanagh 1-14
Donegal made it three wins from three in the Dalata Group Ulster U20 Football Championship, seeing off Down by 3-23 to 1-11 with a sparkling display of attacking football at Ballyshannon.
Daithi Gildea banged in an early goal to get the home side going, finishing clinically to the net as he got on the end of a defence-splitting move.
But Down, with the wind in their backs, started to get some momentum going, and two-pointers from Eoghan Travers and Oran Byrne had them very much in contention.
The home side turned the game back in their favour, with Max Campbell contributing three points and Conor McCahill converting a free.
The Mourne side responded with a second two-pointer from Travers, but Donegal grabbed a secnd goal just before half-time, David Monaghan winning a penalty that Seanan Carr netted.
They led by 2-10 to 0-10 at the interval, but the visitors struck for a goal of their own seven minutes into eh second half, Barra McEvoy carving the opening for Travers to fire his shot home, off a post.
But they were only able to add one more point, a Travers free, bringing his tally to 1-6, while Donegal finished strongly.
Conor McGinty, Kevin Muldoon and Shane Callaghan all landed two-pointers as they reeled off a string of scores to amass a comfortable winning margin, setting up a crunch game against All-Ireland champions Tyrone next week, with the winners going straight through to the semi-finals, and a quarter-final tie awaiting the group runners-up.
Antrim and Fermanagh are both still searching for a first win in the series after finishing level at Dunsilly, where it finished 0-17 to 1-14.
The Ernesiders led by 1-6 to 0-7 at half-time, and were still clinging to a slender one point lead in the closing stages, before the Saffrons grabbed a late leveller.
