Longford’s St Mel’s College U-16 side beaten in bid to reach the Leinster Junior 'A' Final

Naas CBS . . . 1-13    St Mel’s College . . . 1-9

The Co Kildare school were on a high after capturing the coveted Hogan Cup in a historic All-Ireland Senior Football title triumph on St Patrick’s Day and the Naas CBS U-16 team appeared to be in control against St Mel’s when they built up a comfortable 0-8 to 0-2 lead. 

After missing an open goal in the first few minutes, St Mel’s got on the scoresheet with a point apiece from Shane Donohoe and Michael Flynn and gradually came to life to completely dominate the last ten minutes of the first half.

This glorious spell yielded 1-5 with Harry Mulvihill scoring the goal following an excellent move and the Longford college ended up leading by the minimum of margins at the break, 1-7 to 0-9. 

The course of the game changed in the early stages of the second half when Naas CBS hit back to score a goal and a point and then set up a multi layered defensive system to consolidate their advantage. 

As a result, It was difficult for the St Mel’s attack to penetrate the resolute opposing defence and the best they could manage on the changeover was a couple of points through Jack Belton and Michael Flynn.

Naas CBS added three more points to their tally to seal the win and now meet the Dublin champions Ardscoil Ris in the Leinster U-16 ‘A’ final.  

ST MEL’S COLLEGE: Caolan Hussey (Mostrim); Paul Eivers (Killoe), Eamonn Igoe (Killoe, 0-2), Ryan Keogh (Killoe); Jack Fitzpatrick (Killoe), Alex Nugent (Mostrim), Kevin Baskett (Clonguish); Shane Donohoe (Killoe, 0-1), Jack Belton (Mostrim, 0-1); Terry Reynolds (Killoe), Harry Mulvihill (Grattans, 1-1), Daniel Carey (Clonguish); Cormac Flynn (Clonguish), Michael Flynn (Clonguish, 0-4), Davin Donnelly (Killoe). 

Subs:- Jamie Dorr (Clonguish) for C Flynn; Patrick Clancy (Killashee) for J Fitzpatrick.