Murray goal helps Moate CS march on to last four

GAA: Leinster Post-Primary Schools Senior Football 'A' quarter-final

Moate CS 1-13 St Peter’s College, Wexford 0-5

Kevin Egan reports

The semi-final line-up for this year’s Leinster Schools SF 'A' championship was completed yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) when Moate Community School comprehensively outplayed St Peter’s, Wexford, setting up a clash with St Mel’s of Longford.

The fiercely strong breeze that blew diagonally across the Killeshin pitch favoured Moate for the opening half-hour, but some strong running and good possession football from the Wexford side meant that the midlanders struggled to take advantage. It wasn’t until the 11th minute that David O’Reilly opened the scoring from a free, shortly followed up by a brilliantly-struck ’45 from Donal Shirley.

Point scoring wasn’t easy at either end of the ground, while a series of goal chances also went astray, at both ends. The two goalkeepers, Eoin Halligan and James Mitchell (Moate CS), came up with huge saves to deny Pádraig McLoughlin and Oisín Kavanagh respectively, while there were also wide goal attempts at either end, and a penalty from Dean O’Neill that was saved by Halligan.

Excellent scores from Shirley, Bracken and Daragh Lowry made it 0-6 to 0-2 at half-time, but that looked like the least that Moate would need, given the strength of the wind. That was until the side managed by Peter Tormey and Roscommon senior footballer Niall Daly were handed a huge stroke of luck when the wind died down in between halves, and they duly took full advantage.

While Shirley was the dominant influence on the game in the first half, David O’Reilly took over as the key man after the interval. The Westmeath senior hurling panellist pulled out from corner-forward to effectively operate as a link man in the half-forward line, while also dropping in to field several kickouts.

Eoin Bracken also came into the game considerably, kicking two of the first three points of the second half, and then winning the possession that led to Ronan Murray flicking the ball to the net for the game’s only goal with eight minutes gone in the second half.

Another superb point from O’Reilly two minutes later left St. Peter’s eleven points adrift and forced to chase the game, which in turn allowed Moate to sit back, soak up the pressure and strike on the counter attack.

The scoring dried up from there, with just three points each kicked for the remainder of the game – all frees, bar one more from O’Reilly – and despite the best efforts of players like Kyle Clarke Hanglow and Harry Murphy to engineer something after they came off the bench, St. Peter’s never managed to test James Mitchell in the Moate goal.

And so it was the Westmeath school - successors in this competition of the famed Carmelite College (three-time All-Ireland winners and six-time Leinster champions between 1975 and 1981) - that advance to the last four of this year’s Brother Bosco Cup race.

Scorers - Moate CS: Ronan Murray 1-1, David O’Reilly 0-4 (2f), Eoin Bracken 0-4 (3f, 1 pen), Donal Shirley 0-2 (1 45), Daragh Lowry 0-1, Conor Fox 0-1. St Peter’s: Seán Rowley 0-1, Oisín Kavanagh 0-1, Luke Murphy 0-1f, Seán Cooney 0-1f, Harry Murphy 0-1f.

Moate Community School: James Mitchell; Tom Gorman, Adam Keane, Cathal Guinan; Padraig McLoughlin, Donal Shirley, Aodhán Curran; Daragh Lowry, Eoin Bracken; Conaire Martin, Conor Fox, Dean O’Neill; David O’Reilly, Ronan Murray, Tiernan O’Donovan. Subs: Adam Daly for O’Neill (half-time), Alan Lynam for Fox (55 mins), O’Neill for McLoughlin (57).

St Peter’s College, Wexford: Eoin Halligan; Kevin Byrne, Alex Kirby, Simon Roche; Dan Devereux, Robbie Delaney, Pádraig Power; Seán Rowley, Luke Roche; David McCarthy, Jack Hennessy, Will Hayes; Oisín Kavanagh, Luke Murphy, Seán Cooney. Subs: Kyle Clarke Hanglow for McCarthy (half-time), Mark Hennessy for Hayes (40 mins), Michael Furlong for S Roche (45), Conor Cullen for Kavanagh (51), Harry Murphy for Cooney (55).

Referee: Des Cooney (Laois).