St Brigid’s complete the double

Date Published: 06-Apr-2011

St Brigid’s Loughrea 4-14

Roscrea CC 4-12

Niall Canavan at Semple Stadium

St Brigid’s Vocational School, Loughrea made history on Saturday last at Semple Stadium when they defeated Roscrea CC to claim their ninth All-Ireland senior vocational school’s hurling title.

This victory, added to their junior All-Ireland win from four weeks previous, meant the Loughrea-based school became the first to win both the senior and junior titles in the same year.

This enthralling game had everything – eight goals, superb points and a grandstand finish that culminated with Brian Molloy shooting an injury time point to seal a dramatic victory for the Martin Raftery-managed side.

St Brigid’s looked to be heading for victory as the game entered its final stages when leading by five points but two Roscrea goals, the second three minutes from time through John Wall, ensured a dramatic conclusion to a wonderful spectacle.

Wall’s goal had Roscrea within the minimum at 4-13 to 4-12 but stout St Brigid’s defending epitomised by Darragh O’Donoghue, Gary Moylan and Sean Sweeney held Roscrea at bay prior to Molloy’s late insurance point.

It was Roscrea that started the brighter, and by the seventh minute they had five unanswered points on the board. Eoin Ryan, with two, Brendan Toohey, Wall and midfielder Joe Cleary were on target for the wind-aided Tipperary side.

With Roscrea dominating, St Brigid’s eventually dropped midfielders Sweeney and Tomas Spellman back into a deep-lying sweeping role while their half forward line of Darragh Burke, Darragh Dolan and Thomas Mitchell subsequently retreated towards the middle of the field.

This successfully negated the quality of ball reaching the dangerous Ryan, while also creating much needed space for the St Brigid’s full forward line where Molloy excelled.

Soon after this St Brigid’s, who lined out without full-back Shane Flynn due to flu and centre-back Mark Horan, were level at 1-2 to 0-5.

Their first score came on nine minutes when Stephen Cahalan struck to the net after collecting from Brian Molloy. The aforementioned Molloy and team captain Darragh Burke then added quick fire points to equalise.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.