Armagh 1-7 Cavan 1-16
The Orchard minors suffered their second defeat of the Ulster Championship, losing to Cavan by nine-points.
The Breffni Blues were the better team on display, but Armagh battled hard to remain in the game, before Cavan pulled away at the end.
Cavan raced into an early lead, knocking over the first four points of the game through Eanna Ward (2), Darragh Noonan and Cormac McAvinney.
Armagh finally opened their account through corner forward Conall McGeough, who nabbed a goal with Armagh’s first score.
The Forkhill attacker raced along the endline, broke through two tackles, and riffled the ball to the back of the net.
Cavan cancelled Armagh’s goal out almost immediately however, with three points in quick succession.
But Armagh finished the half strongly to narrow the gap at the break, hitting the next three scores on the bounce.
Martin McKinley fired over a 45 while Paul Hendron (free) and McGeough raised white flags to leave one the difference at the interval. 0-7 to 1-3.
Armagh’s comeback was dealt a huge blow at the start of the second period when midfielder Micheal Hughes picked up a second yellow card.
Cavan widened the gap to three-points who wing half forward Joshua Shehu pointing on both occasions.
McKinley landed two long range frees, matching the efforts of Dylan Edwards and Jake Whyte at the other end.
A superb save from Liam Carroll between the sticks kept Armagh in touch, but Cavan did hit another two points.
Aaron Haughey cut the deficit to five, but Cavan rattled off 1-2 to pull clear and put the result beyond doubt.
Armagh did grab the final score of the afternoon however, with substitute Fionn O Tuathail popping over a late point.
It marked the end of the group stages. After an opening day draw with Antrim, Armagh suffered back-to-back defeats to Tyrone and Cavan.
The Orchard are guaranteed a place in the last eight where they’ll face either Monaghan or league champions Donegal.
