Back-to-back glory for boys of Charlestown
St Attracta's NS, Charlestown who defeated St Joseph's NS, Ballinrobe in the Division 1A Boys decider at last Wednesday's Cumann na mBunscol Mhaigh Eo Finals in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar. Pictures: Michael Donnelly
The boys of Charlestown applied the cherry to the icing on the cake when backing up last year’s victory in the Division 2A boys final by becoming Division 1A boys champions, in MacHale Park, last Wednesday.
Emphatic barely does justice to just how convincing the St Attracta’s lads were in their dispatching of an unfortunate St Joseph’s, Ballinrobe side who simply came up against an unstoppable force. The South Mayo outfit had to wait until the 33rd minute before raising their first flag by which time Charlestown’s victory speech was already being prepared.
To be fair, Ballinrobe, who themselves had won the 1A title last year for the first time in their school’s proud history, were very competitive for the opening quarter hour during which had limited Charlestown to just two points by Kalem Higgins and Luke McDermott. But McDermott had already driven one goal chance wide and had another effort saved by Ballinrobe goalkeeper Evan O’Brien, while Matthew Naughton had also gone very close to raising the game’s first green flag, so when Jayden Higgins took a pass from Senan Tiernan and blasted to the net on 15 minutes, it was no surprise that the dam burst thereafter.
A 1-2 to no score lead had become a 5-5 to no score lead by half-time (25 minutes per half). Jayden Higgins bagged his second goal, knocking home the rebound after Kalem Higgins’ shot had been well blocked, and there was a brace of majors too by Luke McDermott, and one goal from the boot of Matthew Naughton. The points were supplied by Frank Muldoon, Jayden Higgins and Nathan Gethins, as a gap of some 20 points developed between the teams.
Charlestown’s rate of second-half scores was quite modest in comparison, with all six of their points delivered by the boot of the excellent Luke McDermott, who finished this final with 2-7 beside his name, although Senan Tiernan was unlucky to see his goal effort expertly saved by the overworked O’Brien between the Ballinrobe sticks.
Ballinrobe had just the one scorer for the second-half too, as Patrick Duffy struck three points, including two from frees, but this was undeniably Charlestown’s day as their exceptionally skilful team completed a memorable back-to-back.
St Attracta’s NS, Charlestown: Tadhg Drury, Cormac Breheny, Gabriel Buganski, Ollie Doherty, Ted Munnelly, Conor Breheny, Matthew Naughton (1-0), Senan Tiernan, Matvii Sakhnenko, Jayden Higgins (2-1), Frank Muldoon (0-1), Cillian Murphy Waters, Kalem Higgins (0-1), Nathan Gethins (0-1), Luke McDermott (2-7), Ollie Doherty, Oisín Redmond, Michéal Battle, Ben McDonnell, Tiernan Redmond, James Dockery, Ross O’Gara, Shea O’Connor, Keelan Byrne.
St Joseph’s NS, Ballinrobe: Evan O’Brien, Patrick Heneghan, Shane Gavin, Fionn Horan, Rian Hennelly, Cillian Hacker, Daniel Flannery, Darragh Wilson, Patrick Duffy (0-3, 2f), Conor Dowling, Aodhán Fahy, Sean Staunton, Joe Tiernan, Matthew O’Toole, Dara Rochford, Sean Heanue, Jayden Colfar, Kian Flanagan, Elliott Lavin, Donnacha Kane, Daire Heneghan, Harry Burke, Nathan O’Malley, Eoghan Grimes, Xavier Glynn-Martin, Edward Pitt, Matthew Heneghan, Eoghan Waters, Alfie Cahill, Keyton Morley, Andrew Coen.
