A piece of history was created on the opening night of the Louth Championship as Cuchulainn Gaels recorded their first ever victory in the Junior Football Championship.

After 16 years trying, the Omeath men secured their first success when they defeated Dowdallshill in the Group D clash at Darver on Thursday night on a scoreline of 1-7 to 0-8.

A goal from Cian McDonald just after the second half water break proved the difference between the teams in what was a tight encounter.

The peninsula side led at the break by 0-5 to 0-4 as they took advantage of the fact that Dowdallshill finished the half with 12 players having received a red and two black cards.

The Dundalk men fought back and scores from Noel Finnegan helped them take the lead, but McDondald’s goal and a late Francis O’Hagan point saw the Gaels come out on top.

It was also a memorable weekend for St Nicholas as they picked up a first Championship win in some years by defeating Westerns by 1-17 to 0-5 at Darver in Group B on Sunday morning.

The game began slowly for both teams and at the first water break the Nicks had the only score on the board thanks to a Paudi Downey point.

However, the Drogheda men picked up the pace in the second quarter with scores from Jimmy Murray and Fionn Meagher helping them extend the lead before goal from Downey helped them lead by 1-8 to 0-1 at the break.

The Westerns improved in the second half and had points from Conor Kerr, Patrick Kerley and Anthony Durnin. However, they were denied the goal they needed by some fine saves from Alex Reilly.

The Drogheda men completed a comfortable win thanks to scores from Eddie Carr and Murray who brought his total to nine points for the day.

Stabannon Parnells made a winning start to Group A as they defeated Nh Malachi by 0-15 to 1-8 at Darver on Thursday night.

This Group A clash saw the Parnells get on top from the opening exchanges and by the interval they had established a healthy 0-10 to 0-5 lead, with Harry Butterly once again in fine form as he finished the night with eight points.

The Malachis responded at the start of the second half and a goal from Paudie Moley gave them hope. However, they Stabannon defence held firm to help secure victory on a night where Robbie Callaghan, Aonghus Giggins, Niall Cluskey and Barry Lynch were also on target.

Na Piarsaigh began their Junior Championship Group D campaign with a 2-10 to 1-11 win Sean McDermotts in Hunterstown on Sunday afternoon.

There wasn’t much in it in the first half with the Ardee lads working very hard to stay in the game and going in at the break just one point behind, 0-6 to 0-5.The game opened up somewhat in the second period with the Sean's introducing Marty Duffy up front and he certainly made a difference notching three points and getting involved in most of the forward play, however Na Piarsaigh had a purple patch midway through the half scoring two goals through Vinny Corley and Robbie Murphy.

The Seans, who found the net through Peter Osborne, put in a storming finish and will consider themselves unlucky not to come away with something from this match, one has to wonder why the Sean's waited till the break to spring Duffy as he certainly livened things up front in the second period.

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