St. Peter’s all set for All-Ireland in Croker
Peter’s shine on the stony grey soil
BEFORE LAST Wednesday, I suspect the only association St. Peter’s College had with the rural Co. Monaghan heartland of Inniskeen was through the poetry of the area’s favourite son, Patrick Kavanagh, a staple of the school curriculum.
However, the ‘Stony Grey Soil’ he enlivened with his words will be recalled forever more as the site for one of the finest sporting achievements in the Summerhill school’s long and storied history.
Grattan Park to be precise was the location for a magnificent achievement by the Senior footballers in white and green as they qualified for a first-ever Masita All-Ireland Post-Primary Schools ‘A’ championship final with a thrill-a-minute one-point win over St. Mary’s of Magherafelt, who had added their names to the MacRory Cup roll of honour on St. Patrick’s Day.
In years to come this game will be best remembered for a second-half goal of outstanding quality by St. Peter’s midfielder Rory O’Connor which was good enough to adorn any big occasion.
It arrived in the 41st minute and it was of the utmost importance to the Leinster champions, as their six-point interval lead had been eroded to two by that stage and they were in dire need of a score to steady the ship.
And the sheer quality of O’Connor’s finish - planting the ball in the top right corner of the net after injecting pace and a direct approach into a move featuring Ben Moore and Peter Barry - was enough to inspire St. Peter’s to add two more points to surge 2-10 to 1-6 clear.
Both were kicked by corner-forward Cathal Devereux with that lethal left boot of his, the first a glorious drive into the clouds from play after good work by Michael Codd and Brian Deeny, and the second curled over from a free after busy substitute Codd was fouled.
Those classy finishes left St. Peter’s seven points clear with eleven minutes left, but their work was far from over.
Indeed, they didn’t register again and fought an anxious rearguard action for most of the rest of the game, although Devereux did see a chance to wrap it up denied by a fine save from Odhran Lynch.
St. Mary’s had kick-started their comeback in the 56th minute when a flowing handpassing move down the middle featured Declan Cassidy twice and ended with Kevin Small parting to Cormac Murphy who palmed the ball to the net from close range.
The anxiety grew when Liam Quinn quickly arrowed over two points to reduce the gap to two, but it looked like it wouldn’t matter when a breakaway developed 50 seconds into added time and Brian Deeny and Ben Moore combined to put Cathal Devereux clean through. However, for once his shooting radar let him down, although to be fair it took an inspired dive to his right by netminder Odhran Lynch to keep him at bay.
Wing-back Finn O’Driscoll did the right thing half a minute later as Declan Cassidy surged goalwards, taking him down and collecting a black card before Kevin Small converted the free.
However, when Barry O’Connor won the kick-out and referee John Hickey spread his arms to signal the end of the game, the joy was hard to accurately convey in words as this St. Peter’s team had achieved something never accomplished before by a football side from the Wexford town school with such a long sporting tradition.
With the original venue of Drogheda deemed unplayable that morning, their squad and the bus-loads of vocal supporters had to venture further north to Inniskeen, which had hosted the Allianz League Division 1 clash of Monaghan and Roscommon just three days earlier.
St. Peter’s gained first use of the strong wind, and they were quickly into their stride as powerful midfielder Brian Deeny opened their account before Dylan Furlong doubled the lead inside three minutes.
They went on to lead by 1-8 to 0-5 at half-time despite kicking seven wides, and one of the notable features of that half-hour was the fact that eight different players picked off points.
Only wing-back Quinn Saunders scored more than once, and his goal seconds before the interval was of supreme importance in the overall scheme of things.
He had been pushing forward from the off, and was rewarded for his adventurous spirit when he slotted a low shot across goal and into the far corner of the net to crown a flowing move featuring Ben Moore, Finn O’Driscoll and Dylan Lyne.
CONTINUED OPPOSITE