Eighteen-year-old Lewis Murphy had a remarkable debut for Fort William, despite their 3-1 defeat to Kinlochshiel in their Artemis Macaulay Cup first round tie at An Aird.
Co-manager Victor Smith said: “Like most teams, we were short because of the England v Scotland match at Wembley but the lads who came in did well.
“And Lewis Murphy was an absolute revelation with his tenacity and energy levels – he’s certainly one to watch.”
The Wester Ross men suffered a blow when internationalist Finlay MacRae came off in 25 minutes.
Manager Johnston Gill said: “He’s got a hamstring problem and will miss our next couple of games, which is a disappointment.
“We were without David Falconer, who injured his shoulder in training, but we served up a good all-round team performance and we had to because Fort competed strongly.
“We’ve now won two games and drawn one and are playing well, but we’re not hitting the target often enough and we’ll need to work on that.”
Skipper Keith MacRae and Donald Nixon put Shiel two up at the interval but 16-year-old Craig MacDonald pulled one back for Fort with a spectacular strike before John MacRae hit a late clincher.
Shiel’s reward is a home quarter-final against Lovat, who were 4-0 winners at Caberfeidh, with Fraser Heath grabbing a double.
Kilmallie scratched from their home tie with cup holders Kingussie due to team-raising problems and Kingussie will now visit Lochaber or Newtonmore in the quarter-final.
Aberdour also scratched, giving Kyles Athletic a walkover and they will have a home quarter-final against Glasgow Mid Argyll, who won 1-0 at Inveraray through Craig Anderson’s strike on the hour mark.
Max Campbell, the teenage recruit from Lochaber, fired four goals and Steven MacDonald hit a treble as Newtonmore cruised into the next round of the Cottages.com MacTavish Cup with a 10-1 win over Inverness.
Scott Harvey struck twice as Bute ran out 3-0 home winners over Col Glen in the Scottish Sea Farms Celtic Society Cup first round.
The only senior league fixture proved an exciting derby as Beauly beat Strathglass 5-3 at Cannich to register their first win of the season.
Penri Jones gave the homesters an early lead but Sandy Elrick equalised with his first goal since rejoining Beauly and Sean Stewart put them 2-1 up in 40 minutes.
Jack Macdonald slammed two goals in two minutes on the hour mark to stretch the lead but Jones grabbed his second to pull one back. Elrick fired Beauly’s fifth in 68 minutes only for Steven Hyslop to strike for Strath a minute later.
Hazel Hunter was on the scoresheet for Glen Urquhart second team in their 8-2 Strathdearn Cup win at Inverness in which David Maclennan hit four goals.
This weekend’s results…
ARTEMIS MACAULAY CUP – First round – Kyles Athletic P-P Aberdour, Inveraray 0-1 Glasgow Mid Argyll, Fort William 1-3 Kinlochshiel, Kilmallie P-P Kingussie.
SCOTTISH SEA FARMS GLASGOW CELTIC SOCIETY CUP – First round – Bute 3-0 Col Glen.
STRATHDEARN CUP – First round – Kingussie P-P Boleskine (Walkover to Kingussie), Fort William 4-1 Lochaber, Kinlochshiel 2-0 Aberdeen Uni, Caberfeidh 0-3 Lovat, Inverness 2-8 Glenurquhart, Beauly P-P Strathglass.
BULLOUGH CUP – First round – Glenorchy 0-1 Inveraray, Glasgow Mid Argyll 4-0 Bute, Kilmory 5-0 English Shinty Association.
MOWI SENIOR LEAGUE B – Strathglass 3-5 Beauly.
MOWI SOUTH LEAGUE B – Kyles Athletic 5-1 Aberdour.
MOWI CENTRAL LEAGUE – Oban Celtic 1-5 Kilmallie.