St Mel’s 2-20 Athlone Community College 1-10

el’s A devastating final quarter from St. Mel’s College secured their place in the last eight of the Leinster GAA Brother Bosco Cup this afternoon at Athlone Community College, though the home side will feel that the final score of 2-20 to 1-10 in favour of the famous Longford school was a harsh reflection of what was a hugely competitive game up until that last fifteen minutes.

Longford minor county stars Matthew Carey and Paddy Moran ran riot in that final quarter with a string of wonderful points, bringing their final tallies up to 0-10 (0-3f, 0-2m) and 0-5 respectively.

Good scores from Daniel Keenan, Shane Gavin and Tomás O’Neill gave the wind-assisted Athlone side an early 0-4 to 0-1 lead, but that was cancelled out when Andrew Flynn’s high shot was spilled on the goal line and Conor Clancy was on hand to slap the ball over the line for an equalising goal.

Unperturbed, Athlone Community College continued to apply plenty of pressure in the first half of the game and they took a narrow 0-8 to 1-4 lead into the break, with Cormac Mulry and Keenan firing over excellent points to give them something to defend after the interval.

Playing with the wind increased the scoring range for Carey and Moran however and they quickly put St. Mel’s on the front foot after half time, stretching the lead out to four points – 1-10 to 1-9 – before a slick move involving Keenan and Oisín Canny set up substitute Jack Nevin for a simple tap in goal.

Crucially, St. Mel’s reply was immediate, and decisive. On a slick breakaway move, a sublime pass from Moran into the chest of Carey left the Clonguish attacker clean through on goal and once he forced Darren Quinn to come off his line, a simple handpass left Andrew Flynn with a tap in.

A black card for Jason Mulvey increased the pressure on the home side and the last 15 minutes was one way traffic, with St. Mel’s tacking on ten points in succession, interrupted only by a close range free from Oisín Ó Flaharta that was blasted at goal, but parried over the bar.

St. Mel’s now advance to meet Scoil Mhuire of Clane in the quarter-final round.

by Kevin Egan.