St. Peter’s drive on
Strong showing from the Summerhill boys in Ferns
ST Peter’s College advanced to the winners round of the Top Oil Leinster Schools Senior Hurling A championship with a comfortable success against Borris VS in Ferns C.O.E. on Wednesday afternoon last.
The Summerhill boys roared out of the blocks with 1-5 in the first seven minutes and never looked back as they sauntered into the next section in tip-top form. There they will be drawn against either Dubin North, St Kieran’s and Coláiste Eoin, with the winners advancing automatically to the last four.
They got a little fortune for their opening goal in the second minute. Conall O Crualaoich coasted in from the right side and slapped a shot at goal which defender Tadhg Doran could only deflected past Keelin O’Grady to his own net.
Jake Nobbs and Conall Clancy both picked off points before Shelmaliers standout Ross Banville made the lead eight. Against a better outfit, Paddy Heffernan’s net-rippling long range free could have derailed St Peter’s but they got right back on the scoring trail.
Banville had four on the board when O Crualaoich plucked out a ball from the left, made a little space for himself and drilled St Peter’s into a 2-8 to 1-0 lead after the opening quarter. From that moment on Borris were only outscored by a goal and point (1-10 to 0-9) but that paints a false picture of the contest.
The Wexford school were rattled by some overly feisty challenges but showed enough strength to avoid doling out retribution worthy of a costly early shower. While the rugged nature of the second quarter slowed them down, St Peter’s added a third goal in added time through Patrick O’Connor to make it 3-10 to 1-4 at the interval.
Borris only added a Heffernan point in the opening 22 minutes of the second stanza. In the meantime St Peter’s were a little more structured, less adventurous, as Banville and O’Connor shared seven points, four of them dead-balls, to increase the advantage to 3-17 to 1-5. The Carlow school tapped over five of the last six points of the afternoon, it made the scoreboard a little less lopsided at the end but the gulf between these two was clear. St Peter’s will play their next game the week they return from Christmas break.
ST PETER’S COLLEGE: David Pettit (Our Lady’s Island); Feidhlim Roche (Blackwater), Billy Dunne (Oulart-The Ballagh), Ryan Furlong (Faythe Harriers); Aaron Doyle (Shelmaliers), Ben Stafford (St Martin’s), Conor Mahoney (Glynn-Barntown); Patrick O’Connor (Blackwater, 1-5, 0-4 frees), Cillian Gahan (Faythe Harriers); Peter Rowley (Oylegate-Glenbrien), Ross Banville (capt., Shelmaliers, 0-8, 3 frees, 1 ‘65), Jake Nobbs (Blackwater, 0-1); Conall Clancy (Faythe Harriers, 0-2), Conor Kelly (St Martin’s), Conall O Crualaoich (Faythe Harriers, 2-2). Subs. - David Codd (St Martin’s) for Doyle (39), Zac Firman (St Martin’s) for Kelly (39), Tomás Murphy (Blackwater) for Nobbs (43), David Cantwell (St Martin’s) for Clancy (47), Dylan O’Neill (Shelmaliers) for Crowley (53).
BORRIS: Keelin O’Grady; Ger Kavanagh, Sean Cummins, Pauric Coleman; Tadhg Daly, John Doyle, Tadhg Doran; Eoin Kavanagh (0-1), Colm Malone (capt.); Eoin Hosey (0-2), James Smithers (0-1), Ben Bolger; Paddy Heffernan (1-2, 1-1 frees), Conor Tracey (0-1), Shiam Harman. Subs. - Dean Tobin (0-1) for Coleman (23), Seanan Doyle for Bolger (26), Ciaran Dowling (0-1) for Harman (26), Liam Lawlor for Daly (48), Oisin Ryan (0-1) for Heffernan (54), Jack Flood for Tracey (58).
REFEREE: Pat Moran (Laois).