Three Rock secure the Leinster Mills Cup

THREE Rock Rovers won the Leinster Mills Cup for the fourth time in its last five editions as a brilliant first half performance set them up for a 4-2 win over YMCA on St Patrick’s Day.

The Grange Road side – hosting the finals day once again – raced into a three-goal lead before the big break and while the Y fought back in the second half, their wait for a major trophy will now extend to 30 years after a third successive final defeat.

Ali Empey was the star of the show early on as he broke the deadlock and subsequently doubled the lead in the opening quarter when set through one-on-one.

James Walker netted the third with a lovely high finish to make it 3-0. Rex Dunlop duly added a fourth goal in the second half to seemingly put Rovers out of sight before YM rallied with Adam Walker scoring a pair of penalty corner goals.

But they could not close the gap further and so Three Rock prevailed to win their 24th Leinster Senior Cup crown.

It followed a day after they grabbed a strong away draw in the men’s EY Hockey League away to leaders Banbridge with Empey scoring the equaliser in the final quarter after Ben Johnson had given the Rathfarnham club a 15th minute lead.

Next weekend, they face a spicy double-header against Lisnagarvey – Saturday sees them play at home at 2pm in the EYHL before they travel up the M1 to Garvey on Sunday for an Irish Senior Cup semi-final.