St Patrick's CS get Leinster campaign off to winning start
St Patrick’s CS, Navan had a convincing 2-12 to 0-10 win against Athlone CC in the Leinster Colleges SFC in the ACC grounds yesterday (Tuesday).
Although their performance was not particularly impressive, St Pat’s were the bigger and more physical side and they beat a young Athlone CC outfit comfortably in the end.
St Pat's had good individual performances from Louis Collins, Matthew Cully, Tadhg Martyn and, in particular, full-forward Con Smith. Smith finished the game with 1-6 and his ability to get scores was the difference.
The Navan side led by 1-7 to 0-7 at half-time which was helped in no small way by a Ciaran Cox penalty after he had been fouled.
Athlone had turned over possession in the St Pat's half which led to the penalty, and it was a matter of double jeopardy for the hosts, who had put in plenty of hard graft in the first 30 minutes.
The Athlone side played quite defensively and held possession well in the first half. They were frustrating the Navan side and deserved to be equal on the scoreboard at the interval.
Although Athlone didn’t score from play in the second half, they kept within touching distance until St Pat's got a major boost when Smith finished to a good move to the net, effectively making it game over.
Powering on from there, they proceeded to put the game to bed with scores from Collins, Cully and player of the match Smith.
Daniel Keenan (who finished with 0-7) kicked Athlone's three second-half scores from frees, but they simply weren’t strong enough physically to win and retain sufficient possession to really threaten.
SCORERS
St Patrick's CS Navan - C Smith 1-6 four frees; C Cox 1-0 penalty; M Cully 0-3; D McKeever, J Finnerty 0-1; L Collins 0-1.
Athlone CC - D Keenan 0-7 five frees; O Canny 0-2 frees; J Mulvey 0-1.
TEAMS
St Patrick's CS, Navan - Adam Niven; Colm O’Toole, Thomas Donegan, Cormac Carolan; Tom McDonnell, John Finnerty, Louis Collins; Matthew Cully, Eoin Donegan; Tadhg Martyn, David McKeever, Ciaran Cox; Eoghan Nugent, Con Smith, Andrew Canavan. Subs - Marc Rennicks for Cox half-time, Cian Caldwell for Nugent 48 mins, Jack Owens for McKeever 48m, Ross Reynolds for McDonnell 50m.
Athlone CC - David Campion; Luke Gavin, Harry Griselain, Pierce Edmundson; Enna Henry, Ronan Doyle, Kevin Claffey; Oisin O’Flaherty, Jason Mulvey; Shane Gavin, Daniel Keenan, Jack Nevin; Brendan Murphy, Caimin Boland, Oisin Canny. Subs - Cormac Mulry for Boland half-time, James Goose for Murphy, Tijani Ishola for Gavin both 48 mins, Michael Dillon for S Gavin 52m, James Rourke for Mulvey 55m.
Referee - Eamon O’Connor (Offaly).