Published: Wednesday, 3rd March, 2010 5:00pm

Marist have no answer to Mary's

St Mary's College 4 Marist College 1

The Marist College's hopes of winning the Connacht senior schools title were foiled by an impressive St Mary's College of Galway, at Terryland Park on Tuesday night of last week.

All the goals came in the second half, with man-of-the-match Tony Ward breaking the deadlock seven minutes after the restart with a neat strike to the bottom right corner.

However, the scoreline tells a small untruth as for long periods of the encounter Marist College created an equal number of chances as their Galway counterparts. Marist got a bit of an early shock as St Mary's dangerman Shane Maughan crashed a drive off Eoin Carberry's crossbar after just four minutes play. But the Athlone boys soon found their feet and came very close to breaking the deadlock after 18 minutes. A sweet pass by Robert Benson set Niall Boland on his way, but the Marist winger just dragged his shot narrowly wide.

Carberry was called into action once more on the verge of half-time as he produced a top-drawer save from Ward, when the St Mary's striker found himself one-on-one with the Marist keeper. Carberry was up to the task, however, and his excellent stop sent the sides in all square at the break at 0-0. Five minutes after the restart, a free-kick from Benson sent the St Mary's goalkeeper Ronan Burke scuttling across his goal, but the Galway stopper somehow managed to hold Marist scoreless. And two minutes later, Burke's save was underlined as Ward grabbed the opener for St Mary's.

The nippy striker ran onto a through ball from Fiach O'Barra and coolly slotted past Carberry to give the home side the advantage. Sean Glynn got their second on the hour and they wrapped up the title five minutes later when Shane Keogh headed home.

Kevin Horan responded with a penalty for Marist after 69 minutes when Alan Coffey was felled by Shane Gallagher, and with 15 minutes remaining, Carberry once more kept the Athlone side's faint hopes alive with a great save from Ward's ambitious effort from distance.

With nine minutes left, Carberry again foiled Maughan, however, Maughan got his revenge and sealed St Mary's ninth Connacht senior crown with a strike five minutes from time.

St Mary's finished the battle with nine men after Sean Glynn and Greg Bohan were given their marching orders in a game that was never dirty.

St Mary's College: Burke; Gallagher, McEntee, Casserly, O'Curraoin; O'Barra, Lomboto, Glynn, Keogh; Ward, Maughan. Reserves: Browne for O'Curraoin, h-t; Bohan for O'Barra, 77 mins.

Marist College: Carberry; Monaghan, Henshaw, McCormack, Mooney; Boland, Benson, Horan, Gill, Coffey; Gardiner. Reserves: Cunniffe for Gardiner, 55 mins; Boland for Mooney, 59; Joyce for Horan, 85.

Referee: Pat Barry (Galway).