Mighty Mary’s
Enniscorthy stroll to glory
ST. MARY’S C.B.S. 8-10
ST. COLMCILLE’S C.S. 0-7
ST. MARY’S C.B.S. proved way too strong for an over-matched St. Colmcille’s (Knocklyon) in the Top Oil Leinster Post-Primary Schools Juvenile hurling ‘B’ championship final in Fenagh.
The Enniscorthy school simply had game winners everywhere and their Dublin opponents just couldn’t match them for quality. All over the field the victors dominated and it started right back with number one.
Oylegate-Glenbrien clubman Conor Murphy was superb between the sticks, as balls his opposite number needed to bat into the goalmouth, he reached up and plucked out of the sky. It really set the tone back there.
The six defenders followed their goalkeeper’s example.
Only one of their opponents managed to score and most of those were from dead-balls, and that tells pretty much the whole story of a section of the team which completely controlled the opposition.
Quality ball coming from the midfield duo of Darren Kelly and Shane Kehoe was constant and allowed the attacking sextet to play on the front foot and run their opponents ragged.
In the end they scored 8-10 but it could have been more.
The marker was laid down in the opening five minutes. The elusive Oisín Pepper had a couple of points on the board but Patrick Redmond’s well-taken goal was the score that signalled that St. Colmcille’s were in for a long afternoon.
The sandy goalmouths were an interesting feature of this game and it seems that plenty of spins have been made from Crossabeg-Ballymurn to Curracloe over the years in the Murphy household, because Brody had no problems bagging a brace of majors late in the opening half.
A 3-5 to 0-5 lead at the break looked comfortable but the game felt even more one-sided.
Stefan San Augustin pulled home in the goalmouth after the interval before Conal Kervick added a double major salvo in less than 60 seconds, the first after a fantastic pass from David Hennebry.
Up by 6-6 to 0-6 after 36 minutes, St. Mary’s could really have embarrassed their opponents at that stage.
However, they have more class than that and just plodded along without ever upping the tempo all the way to the max.
San Augustin did cap a fine individual performance with his second goal in the 48th minute, and the supreme Brody Murphy completed his hat-trick with a smashing finish two minutes from time as St. Mary’s wrapped up the title in style.
Enniscorthy C.B.S.: Conor Murphy; Dara Casey, Sam O’Brien, Matt Kinnaird; Aaron Byrne, Josh Waldron, David Hennebry; Darren Kelly (0-1 free), Shane Kehoe; Fionn Walsh, Patrick Redmond (1-1), Stefan San Augustin (2-1); Oisín Pepper (0-6, 1 free), Brody Murphy (capt., 3-1), Conal Kervick (2-0). Subs. - Aaron Wallace for San Augustin (51), Ryan Quigley for Kervick (53), Ronan Kervick for Kelly (56), Aidan Denton for Hennebry (57), Pierce Redmond for B. Murphy (59), also Seán Fitzpatrick, Cameron Clarke, Ger Kennedy, Darragh Kehoe, Mikey McVeigh, Jack Kehoe.
St. Colmcille’s: Jack Hutchinson; Reed Barry, Alex Gavin, Oisín Byrne; David Gannon, James O’Brien, Matthew Dempsey; Joe Maguire, Michael McDonald; Daragh Malone, Dara Kenny (0-7, 4 frees, 2 ‘65s), Conall McGlynn; Cian Kelly, Cian Durkin, Thomas Brosnan. Subs. - Conor Casey for Durkin (40), Hugh Kelly for C. Kelly (51), Jack Larkin for McGlynn (53), Timmy Cleary for Maguire (57).
Referee: Pat Moran (Laois).