Marist march into last eight as decisive win raises hopes

Marist College 1-20

St Peter's Dunboyne 1-7

By Kevin Egan

Could this be the year? Outside of the senior football panel, it wasn’t a question that had been aired too often about this Marist College group.

The school’s longstanding quest to win the Br Bosco Cup is always part of the local conversation at this time of year but after being drawn into a comparatively underwhelming group, it was hard to know where they stood going into a dangerous game against St Peter’s College on Monday in TUS Midlands.

The Dunboyne school have historically played most of their football outside the 'A' grade but this crop of players have racked up the medals on the Meath underage scene and that prompted their management to have a go at the elite grade.

A competitive defeat to reigning champions Coláiste Mhuire and a comprehensive win over Patrician College, Newbridge vindicated that decision and suggested that this would be a really tough test for a Marist side that wasn’t road-tested to the same extent.

But the home side produced a wonderful all-round display that saw them steamroll past their Meath opponents, going 17 points up before the visitors tacked on the last three scores.

By half-time, the 0-8 to 0-2 deficit already left St Peter’s with a mountain to climb, given that they had played with the breeze in that opening half hour. Marist College had more ball in that spell too but St Peter’s coughed up several good attacking chances with sloppy passes at just the wrong time. With the wind at their backs, the visitors also needed to press the ball a lot more instead of allowing Marist to move possession from side to side, often taking two or three minutes off the clock before attempting to put a score on the board.

Some chances went astray as the Marist forwards struggled to get to grips with the breeze, partially sheltered by the athletics arena but still a factor. That was never a big issue, however, as the chances kept coming while at the other end of the field, Tadhg Fallon led a full-back line that was absolutely watertight against good opponents.

James McHugh struck four points in the first half to lead the way; Andrew Henson showed that he remains every bit as adept with a round ball as an oval one, kicking two points and generally terrorising the St Peter’s defence; while Donal Dawson and Adam Smyth took a firm grip of the kickout battle.

St Peter’s clearly had a lot of faith in their pairing of Eoghan McDonald and team captain Eoin McCrudden as they never opted for a short restart option, and yet Smyth and Dawson embraced the challenge and prevailed, giving the team a wonderful platform from which to attack.

McDonald and Seán Delaney kicked a point each for St Peter’s but Delaney was also off the mark with a couple of two-point attempts from distance, scores that were badly needed by the visitors. As it happened, they would have made little or no difference.

Smyth and Dawson continued to rule the roost and with a little bit more space and time, Seán Whittaker and Cian Duffy also came into the game. With quick ball coming their way time and again, the quartet of Whittaker, Duffy, Henson and McHugh continued to rack up the scores, with St Peter’s goalkeeper Seán Doyle doing brilliantly to prevent Whittaker and McHugh (twice) from finding the net.

There was a brief flicker of hope for St Peter’s when Tadhg Brennan goaled, having been assisted by Shay Mooney, but within five minutes Marist knocked over four points in succession and then made sure of their win when Whittaker gave Doyle no chance whatsoever with a thunderous drive into the bottom left corner.

Doyle wasn’t the only goalkeeper capable of heroics either, with St Peter’s dismal afternoon summed up by Zac Mullally’s athletic dive to get down and turn Delaney’s penalty around the goalpost with ten minutes to play.

Five final defeats continue to haunt the Athlone school as they strive to add their name to the roll of honour in this famous competition and while Naas CBS, St Patrick’s, Navan and reigning champions Coláiste Mhuire will be perceived as front runners for the competition, this performance has definitely elevated Marist College into the “dark horse” category, at the very least.

That quest to win their inaugural Br Bosco Cup continues tomorrow (Wednesday) when the Marist College travel to play Terenure College in the host's grounds at 11.45am, a game that will be televised live on Clubber TV.

Scorers - Marist: S Whittaker 1-4 (1tp); J McHugh 0-6 (3f); C Duffy, A Henson 0-4 each; W Geraghty, D Murray 0-1 each. St Peter’s: S Delaney 0-4 (2f, 1tpf); T Brennan 1-0; E McDonald 0-2; E McCrudden 0-1.

Marist College, Athlone: Zac Mullally; Tadhg Fallon, Jacob Bourke, Seán McDonnell; Rory McMickan, Diarmuid O’Higgins, Seán Keegan; Adam Smyth, Donal Dawson; William Geraghty, Andrew Henson, Cian Duffy; Seán Whittaker, James McHugh, Darragh Glennon. Subs used: John Timlin for Geraghty (46), Aidan Brennan for Keegan (51), Daragh Murray for Duffy (52), Gary Staunton for McMickan (54), Andrew Cotton for Whittaker (57).

St Peter’s College, Dunboyne: Seán Doyle; Ryan Monaghan, Paul Magee, Paul Dempsey; Andrew Norman, Dominic Eaton, Eoghan Pearl; Eoghan McDonald, Eoin McCrudden; James McCaghy, Harry Healy, Shay Mooney; Seán Delaney, Tadhg Brennan, James Lonergan. Sub used: Noah Whitton for Eaton (41).

Referee: Eamon O’Connor (Offaly).