Marist edge out St Pat's in thriller

Marist Athlone 3-9 St Patrick's CS Navan 1-14

By Fergal Lynch

Marist College pipped St Patrick's CS, Navan at the post in a thrilling Leinster Schools SF 'A' preliminary quarter-final, played in Dunganny this afternoon (Tuesday).

A last-gasp point by Garrycastle's James McHugh secured victory for the Marist over their Meath opponents.

This is how football should be played - powerful, pulsating, free-flowing, tough and uncompromising; it ebbed one way and then flowed the other.

St Patrick's trailed from the opening minute - when Thomas Cotton of St Dominic's bundled the ball to the net for Marist's opening goal - until six minutes into the second half when the excellent Andrew Gormley drew the sides level for the first time.

Just as they thought they had clawed their way back into the game, St Pat's were hit with the Athlone side's second goal, this time a mesmerising finish from Cillian Geary.

Instead of capitulating St Pat's turned to their bench and introduced Dunsany's Stephen Cahill who made an immediate impact by firing St Pat's only goal with his first touch to restore parity again.

Surely now the Navan side would kick on? However within three minutes of that goal, Marist struck for their third with a full length of the pitch counter attack that saw Daire O'Connor, James McHugh, Darragh Lough and Cotton combine to set up Geary for a simple palmed finish to the net. That made it 3-5 to 1-8 at the three-quarters stage.

All looked lost for St Pat's, but boosted by their boisterous band of loyal supporters the Navan side settled. A point from Cahill and two magnificent scores from Colin Scanlon brought St Pat's level for a third time, 1-11 to 3-5, and in the 51st minute they hit the front for the first time when Cian Hosie converted a free.

Cormac Nugent sold a superb dummy to put two between the sides and when Gormley edged the Navan side three points clear with four minutes remaining, there only looked like one winner.

However, the Marist never panicked. Donal Dawson, Daire O'Connor and Kyle Mahon dragged the Westmeath side level a minute into injury-time.

Extra-time looked certain as St Pat's retained possession in attack, but then Marist pressed, turned over possession and in another sweeping counter attack, they landed the winning point with McHugh clipping over with the last kick of the game to break St Pat's hearts.

The Navan side faced an uphill struggle from the off with the concession of the early goal and when Cotton added a point to his goal the Athlone side led by four after just five minutes.

Oran Meade settled St Pat's with his side's opening score in the eighth minute, while points from Gormley and Hosie sandwiched an O'Connor score before Hosie closed the gap to the minimum with an excellently worked point.

Marist replied with points from Lough and McHugh (free), but it was St Pat's who finished the half on the front foot with frees from Gormley and Hosie closing the deficit to 0-6 to 1-4 at the break.

O'Connor stretched Marist's lead three minutes after the restart, but a point from Nugent and a converted mark from Gormley restored parity for the first time. From there on the decent sized crowd was treated to a thriller as the scores flowed. Ultimately, it was Marist who advanced to the quarter-finals as St Pat's hearts were broken.

Marist College, Athlone - Zac Mullally; Sean Keegan, Liam Staunton, Kailin Blessing; Diarmuid O'Higgins, Adam Smyth, Kyle Mahon (0-1); Kealan Connell, Andrew Henson; Paul Keegan, Daire O'Connor (0-3, 1 free), Darragh Lough (0-1); James McHugh (0-2, 1 free), Thomas Cotton (1-1), Cillian Geary (2-0). Subs: Sean Whittaker for Mahon, Donal Dawson (0-1) for Cotton (45 mins), Daire Burke for Staunton (47), Mahon for Blessing (53).

St Patrick's CS, Navan - Jamie Norris; Ciall Flynn, Sean McLoughlin, Charles McCarthy; Oran Meade (0-1), Sean Betson, Ivo Fitzherbert; Adam Wogan, David Donnelly; John Gormley, Cian Hosie (0-4, 2 frees), James Donnelly; Cormac Nugent (0-2), Andrew Gormley (0-4, 2f, 1 mark), Colin Scanlon (0-2). Subs - Stephen Cahill (1-1) for Betson (37 mins), Liam Dillon for Meade (44), Daniel Pierse for Scanlon (59).