Scahill and McWade excel in great St Kenny display

Cumann na mBunscol Westmeath Division 1 football final: St Kenny NS, Kilpatrick 5-17, St Colman’s NS, Mullingar 2-9

The boys from St Kenny NS, Kilpatrick and St Colman’s NS, Mullingar produced a fitting climax to the 2022 finals in front of a huge crowd in TEG Cusack Park on Thursday evening, the very well-drilled sky blue and navy-clad outfit retaining the title they won pre-Covid in 2019 with a stunning display of football from start to finish.

Jack Connaughton opened the scoring by converting a free after 30 seconds for St Colman’s. However, the excellent Joshua Scahill put the holders into a lead they never looked likely to relinquish with a sixth-minute goal.

During the remainder of the first half, the Kilpatrick lads outscored their opponents by 1-9 (another great Scahill goal in the tenth minute and a hat-trick of points from the same player, together with two points from Stephen McWade, including a free, a Conor Reilly brace, and one each from Cathal Kilmurray and Liam Ó Domhnaill) to 0-4 (Luke Fitzsimons, Theo Kelly and two from Jack Daly), to lead by 2-9 to 0-5 at the interval.

Scahill pounced for an opportunist goal within a minute of the resumption. Connaughton and Scahill soon traded points. Paddy Colleary raised the hopes of the local side with a great goal before Ó Domhnaill and Eoghan Beehan exchanged points.

St Kenny pulled 17 points clear with an unanswered 1-4, courtesy of Scahill (1-1, the point from a free), a point from Tienán Polgar and two from the very impressive McWade.

The hard-working Cian Matthews Tyrrell scored a fine goal for the losers, followed by two point exchanges between McWade (the second from a free) and Matthews Tyrrell (both from play). McWade rounded off a memorable performance from St Kenny NS with a late goal.

After the match, Derek Butler, chairman of Cumann na mBunscol in Westmeath, in conjunction with Irene Fallon, widow of the former school principal in Kilpatrick, Arthur Fallon, presented the trophy to the winning captains Tomás Brennan and Stephen McWade, who then went on to present Mrs Fallon with a bouquet of flowers.

Scorers – St Kenny NS: J Scahill 4-5 (0-1f), S McWade 1-6 (0-2f), C Reilly and L Ó Domhnaill 0-2 each, T Polgar and C Kilmurray 0-1 each. St Colman’s NS: C Matthews Tyrrell 1-2, P Colleary 1-0, J Connaughton (1f) and J Daly 0-2 each, L Fitzsimons, E Beehan and T Kelly 0-1 each.

St Kenny NS, Kilpatrick panel: Adam Bawle, Zack O’Brien, Conor Geoghegan, Senan Walshe, Zak Masterson, Tomás Brennan (joint capt.), Shane Canning, Fionn Carey, David Reilly, Tienán Polgar, Stephen McWade (joint capt.), Liam Ó Domhnaill, Cathal Kilmurray, Dylan Collins, Joshua Scahill, Harry Willems, Jamie Lynch, Liam Enright, Cian Hope, Caleb Nagle, Jamie Barry, Oisín Kilmurray, Thomas Geoghegan, Páidí Darby, Conor Reilly, Fionn Bradley, Euan Willems, Aonghus O’Reilly, Jake Allard, Cody McKeown, Finn Collins-Connell, Harry Hill-Kelly, Evan Flynn, Michael Malone, Joel Kelly.

St Colman’s NS, Mullingar panel: Alex Cybula, Mark Gallagher, Jack Conlon, Jack Daly, Cillian Breslin, Michael Brennan, Jack Devine, Eoghan Beehan, Cian Matthews Tyrrell (joint capt.), Manus Kelly, Paddy Colleary (joint capt.), Luke Fitzsimons, Conor Walsh, Jack Connaughton, Theo Kelly, Jason Garrard, Harry Tilson, Nathan O’Reilly, Shay Leavy, Riley Thornton, Evin Smith, Christian Conway, Alfie Rock, David Connell, Shane McSharry, Sam Phillips, Ben Murphy, Louis Bracken, Andy Sinnott.

Ref: Damien Maher (Ballynacargy).

Player of the match: Joshua Scahill (St Kenny NS, Kilpatrick).