Heartbreak for Mullingar side after late St Peter's goal

St Peter's, Wexford 4-16, Coláiste Mhuire, Mullingar 4-14

By Gerry Buckley

A well-taken goal by the best player on view, Brian Kennedy of St Peter’s, Wexford, a few minutes from the end of the second period of extra-time, enabled the four-time Croke Cup champions to edge out a fine side from Coláiste Mhuire, Mullingar in a pulsating Leinster ‘B’ First Year hurling final at the sun-drenched Ballinteer St John’s pitch last Tuesday morning.

The evenly-matched teams were tied at 1-1 each at the end of the opening quarter. The scores for Coláiste Mhuire, wearing a changed black strip with a green trim, came via Odhran Devine (a pointed free) and Jamie Leech (a great team goal), while the Wexford scores came courtesy of Cormac Cunningham (a point) and the aforementioned Kennedy (a great goal from a tight angle).

Ruairí Heffernan was then awarded a point which many observers – this one included – felt may have been wide. Kennedy and Devine traded points, before James McHugh scored a great goal under pressure for the Mullingar outfit. Leech and Kennedy swapped points before the break, leaving Coláiste Mhuire ahead by 2-4 to 1-3 at the interval.

The boys in the famous white jerseys with a green sash had the aid of a useful breeze on the change of ends and, in truth, they dominated most of the second moiety. Indeed, they outscored their opponents by 1-10 to 0-1 (Killian Raleigh) by the 54th minute, and looked set for a comfortable win. Their goal was fortuitously scored by Kian Hannath in the 44th minute, while the points were shared between Kennedy (four, including a free) Jamie O’Connor (two long-range frees), Corey Roche (a quickfire brace from play), and one each by Aidan Laffan and Cunningham.

Remarkably, however, their eight-point lead was wiped away by a marvellous late, late comeback from Micheál Lawler’s charges. A Leech point preceded a scrambled goal in injury-time from Tristan Duncan, a great three-pointer by Leech, and a wonderful equalizing point from the stick of Duncan. A shell-shocked St Peter’s now had to face extra-time (ten minutes each way), with the scoreline reading: St Peter’s 2-13 Coláiste Mhuire 4-7.

The Model County boys had wind-assistance in the first period, during which they scored 1-3 (a goal from Cunningham, and a hat-trick of converted frees from Kennedy) to Coláiste Mhuire’s 0-3 (McHugh, Leech, and Devine). St Peter’s led by 3-16 to 4-10 at the end of the opening ten minutes.

On the change of ends, four unanswered points looked like they would round off a remarkable comeback win for a well-supported Mullingar outfit. They were scored by skipper Michael Brennan (three – two great long-range frees and a ‘65’), and the other from play by Leech. However, up popped that young man Kennedy again to field the sliotar from a delivery by O’Connor and duly whip it past Shay Leavy for the winning goal.

Scorers – St Peter’s: B Kennedy 2-9 (0-5f), C Cunningham 1-2, K Hannath 1-0, J O’Connor (2f), C Roche 0-2 each, A Laffan 0-1.

Coláiste Mhuire: J Leech 2-4, J McHugh, T Duncan 1-1 each, O Devine (1f), M Brennan (2f, 1‘65’) 0-3 each, K Raleigh, R Heffernan 0-1 each.

St Peter’s, Wexford: AJ Walsh; Luke Corrigan, Rory Power, Patrick Harris; Corey Roche, Jamie O’Connor, Fionn Wilson; Jayden Byrne, Kian Hannath; Daryl O’Brien, Cormac Cunningham, Seamus Kirwan; Aidan Laffan, Brian Kennedy, TJ Byrne. Subs used: Luke Banville for J Byrne (30), Charlie Fogarty for Kirwan (59).

Coláiste Mhuire, Mullingar: Shay Leavy; Alexander Graham, Adam Slevin Kiernan, Tom Leech; Aaron Wallace, Michael Brennan, Joseph Mulvey; Ciarán McGrath, Killian Raleigh; Tristan Duncan, Ruairí Heffernan, Jonah Hassett; Jamie Leech, James McHugh, Odhrán Devine. Subs used: Darragh Daly for Heffernan (55), Dara Clune for Hassett (e/t, 11).

Ref: Derek Oman (Dublin).