Double county hurling success for city schools

There was success on the double for city schools in Connacht Colleges hurling finals, with St Mary’s capturing the Connacht Senior ‘b’ title with a 1-13 to 2-7 win over Garbally College of Ballinasloe; while St Enda’s claimed the Connacht Senior ‘C’ title with a 4-15 to 0-10 win over Coláiste Mhuire of Ballygar.

The B final saw Garbally possess a serious goal threat despite failing to register a single point from play. They could easily have had four in the first half alone, and this factor kept the contest on a knife edge until the final whistle as the Ballinasloe boys stayed within touching distance thanks to Daniel Glynn’s excellent free-taking.

Despite going behind on two occasions when Garbally found the back of the net, St. Mary’s response was always impressive and the strength of their central spine of centre half back Ryan, Ronan Higgins at full back, Mooney in a variety of roles, and Paul Healy was key to their success. While Mooney was annoyed at himself for a couple of poor wides, he ended as the game’s top scorer and in general play was the final’s biggest influence.

St Mary’s now advance to an All-Ireland semi-final clash against either Roscrea or Cashel Community College.

Meanwhile, St Enda’s College greater technical proficiency and ability to create and take their goal chances was central to the city outfit claiming the inaugural Barry Burke Cup in the NUIG Connacht Colleges senior ‘C’ final at Tuam Stadium last Friday.

Two goals in the first half from lively Moycullen corner forward Joe Lydon and another brace from Castlegar’s Patrick O’Boyle in the second period sealed the deal, although St. Enda’s always looked the likely winners having gone in 2-8 to 0-7 ahead at the interval.

As for Coláiste Mhuire, they were rocked by the unavailability of full-back Warren Boyle before throw-in and with such a small panel of players to choose from, it was always going to be difficult for the Ballygar outfit to compensate.

That said, Brian McDonnell’s charges brought a great deal of honesty and effort to proceedings and, certainly, when they played the direct ball to their forwards in the early stages, they caused St. Enda’s quite a bit of trouble.

St Enda’s now meet Salesian College Pallaskenry (Limerick) – who defeated Scarriff CC (Clare) 0-12 to 1-6 in their provincial decider – in the All-Ireland semi-final on Saturday, March 15.