Beauly and Glenurquhart progress
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The league’s newest team Strathspey picked up their first point as they held Lochcarron 3-3, while a weakened Strathglass side were crushed 8-0 away to Kilmallie.
Boleskine kept up the pressure on the leaders courtesy of a 3-1 triumph against Caberfeidh, but Inverness were out of luck as they slumped to a 1-0 home defeat to Lewis Camanachd.
Beauly won the top of the table battle in North Division Three carving out a 3-1 win over Lochbroom at Inverlael. Broom’s Jamie Stewart was sent-off for a second bookable offence.
In the Marine Harvest leagues, Glenurquhart pulled off a fine 5-2 home win over Lochaber in North Division Two, but Lovat were thumped 5-1 by Newtonmore, despite taking the lead in the 37th minute through Darren Urquhart.
Kilmallie stay bottom after they lost 2-0 at home to Inveraray with Garry MacPherson and Neil Campbell on target for the Royal Burgh side.
In the Orion Group Premiership, league leaders Newtonmore were held 3-3 at home by Kyles Athletic. ‘More were never behind in the match and looked to have finally shaken off a determined Kyles side with Chris Sellar’s 71st minute strike, but with just three minutes remaining, full back Norman Campbell put through his own net to hand Kyles a share of the points.
Beauly v Glenurquhart; Fort William v Newtonmore; Kilmallie v Kingussie; Skye v Lochaber.
The quarter-finals, which go ahead on 21st April, line up as follows:
In the final tie, Lochaber defeated Lochcarron 3-1 with Sean Nicholson managing a treble for the Spean Bridge club. Chris Finlayson replied for the Wester Ross side.
Playing without Ross, Kingussie have stumbled to three defeats in their opening four games, but on Saturday his second half hat-trick led the cup holders to a 6-2 win over Kinlochshiel.
Ronald Ross underlined his importance to Kingussie upon his return to the senior side for the first time this season.
Strathglass limped out of the competition, losing 2 - 0 at home to Skye. The islanders dominated the second half and goals by Jordan Murchison and Danny Morrison eased them into the last eight.
In the 73rd minute, Dougie Rankin reduced the leeway with his first goal for his new club, but it came too late to seriously threaten Glenurquhart’s passage into the quarter-finals.
The Glen reshuffled the pack after the interval with Reid, Ally MacKintosh and Arran MacDonald being withdrawn and Inverness, even without their strike partnership of Sorley MacDonald and James Cameron, enjoyed a decent spell.
Glenurquhart had their match against Inverness tied up in the opening quarter as they raced to a 4-1 lead with goals from John Barr (two), Rhuaridh Cameron and Neale Reid. A shell-shocked Inverness managed to fire back with a Ewan MacLeod strike in the 21st minute.
With the match finely poised, it became a highly absorbing contest for the 200 or so spectators and in the 79th minute the Beauly contingent were celebrating after veteran attacker Jamie MacLennan scored the goal of the game with a fine solo run before beating the Lovat goalkeeper at his left hand post.
Beauly began to enjoy the upper hand in midfield and centreline player Conor Cormack joined the attack to fire home the equaliser just five minutes later.
The visitors were in control at this point, but relaxed their grip, allowing Beauly to come back into the match and it was game on again in the 61st minute with Davidson once more on target.
Lovat then extended their lead in the 49th minute when Matheson brilliantly set up Ferguson and from the edge of the box he made no mistake.
Beauly were unable to hold on to their lead, however, and with the last action of the first half, Duncan Davidson put Lovat back in front with a carbon copy of their first goal.
Honours were fairly even after that with defences on top, yet in the 42nd minute Beauly were back in it when Martin Davidson, not long on as a substitute, drilled home an excellent goal from 25 yards.
The match started at an almost sedate pace, but in the 14th minute Owen Ferguson pounced on a rebound from a Greg Matheson strike to open the scoring.
The home side looked to be heading out of the competition as they trailed 3-1 going into the final 30 minutes, but a stirring fightback saw them claim a deserved win.
In a highly entertaining match at Braeview, North Division One leaders Beauly ousted Lovat — unbeaten in this year’s Premier Division — courtesy of a 4-3 success.
ONLY Beauly and Glenurquhart of the Inverness Area teams survived the first round of the Co-operative MacTavish Cup as Inverness and Strathglass followed Caberfeidh out of the competition.
