St Pat's chalk up victory with super first-half display
The age-old chant of 'Super Pat's, Super Pat's of Navan' rang out around sunny Pairc Tailteann today as the school from across the road kick-started their Leinster Colleges' SFC campaign with a 4-10 to 0-5 victory over St Benildus College, Dublin - a victory that was as resounding as the final scoreline suggests.
A huge group of St Pat's students turned out for this game and they vociferously made their presence felt with their repertoire of songs that seemed to inspire their colleagues on the pitch.
Something certainly inspired players such as Andrew Canavan who ended up scoring two goals while Billy Smyth and Lorcan O'Connor also found the net for the winners.
It was strange indeed not to see Colm O'Rourke patrolling the sideline during the course of the game. For years he led successive St Pat's teams in the quest for Leinster and All-Ireland honours but now, of course, he's got other preoccupations when it comes to Gaelic football.
The team is now guided by the triumvirate of Ciaran Tierney, Seamus Peppard and Cian Reynolds and they clearly prepared their troops well for this test.
O'Rourke was in the stand for the game and he could only have been impressed with the team in the familiar black and amber jerseys who were indeed super at least in the opening half when they played some scintillating football.
At times St Pat's were poetry in motion as they stitched passes together that the beseiged St Benildus' defence found difficult to counteract.
Granted the Navan school were greatly helped in that opening half by the fact they had a very strong wind behind them. It blew straight down the pitch towards the O'Mahonys clubhouse end.
It was with great gusto that St Pat's attacked the goals at that end and they reaped a rich reward for their enterprise and sense of adventure.
By the half-time stage St Pat's were already well on the way to victory when they led 2-6 to 0-2. St Pat's engineered the first of their goals on 18 minutes when a fast-paced move ended with O'Connor passing to Smyth who finished to the net. It was a sweet move signed off by a clinical finish.
Six mintues later St Pat's broke through again, their passing and movement creating a chasm of space in the over-stretched St Benildus defence. This time Smyth passed to O'Connor who skilfully slotted home from close range.
The Dublin side needed a bright start to the second-half. They didn't get it. Instead Smyth and Neil McGinley were involved in working the ball to Canavan who finished with a deadly finish. There was only 49 seconds of the half played.
Despite facing into the wind, and losing the services for a while of James Reeves, who was harshly black-carded, St Pat's still were an attacking threat although they didn't add to their points tally until the 47th minutes with Sam Kirwan adding two neat scores from play.
The hard-grafting and physically imposing McGinley hit two fine points from play also while Matthew Kealy, Canavan, Smyth, Cian Commons and Robbie Finnegan all fired over during the course of the contest.
St Pat's showed their defensive qualities more in the second-half as they needed to do but they never looked like conceding a goal. Only two players got on the scoresheet for St Bendilus with Noah Sinclair getting four of their points.
The large contingent of chanting St Pat's supporters were already rapidly vacating the stand and terrace by the time Canavan took a pass from Oisin O'Neill to score his second and his team's fourth goal in injury time. The departing fans knew it was all over bar the shouting.
The goal was a fine way to sign off on a swashbuckling display by St Pat's. They looked good in this game, sharp, focused, but there will be sterner tests ahead.
SCORERS
St Patrick's CS - Andrew Canavan 2-1; Billy Smyth 1-1; Lorcan O'Connor 1-0; Sam Kirwan 0-2; Matthew Kealy 0-2 free, '45'; Neil McGinley 0-2; Cian Commons 0-1; Robbie Finnegan 0-1.
St Benildus - Noah Sinclair 0-4 two frees; Matthew Gardiner 0-1.
TEAMS
St Patrick's CS - Luke Healy (Seneschalstown); Luc Doyle (Walterstown), Brendan McGuinness (Walterstown), Cormac Liggan (Dunderry); Lorcan O'Connor (Walterstown), James Reeves (Skryne), Matthew Kealy (Slane); Darren O'Brien (Seneschalstown), Tadhg Martyn (Slane); Ciaran Quinn (Skryne), Andrew Canavan (Skryne), Seimi Byrne (Seneschalstown); Neil McGinley (Walterstown), Billy Smyth (Skryne), Robbie Finnegan (Seneschalstown). Subs - Cian Commons (Seneschalstown) for McGuinness 20 mins, Ben Corkery (Clann na nGael) for Quinn 42m, Sam Kirwan (Seneschalstown) for Finnegan 46m, Conor Donohoe (Skryne) for McGinley 54m, Oisin O'Neill (Dunderry) for Smyth 65m.
St Benildus College - Nathan Llhuiller; Eamonn Naughton, Cillian Gibbons, Finn Walsh; Cody Graham, Eoin Hosey, Sean McBarron; Andrew O'Reilly, Matthew Gardiner; Eoghan O'Riordan, Senan Phelan, Cillian Minogue; Noah Sinclair, Dylan Bannon, Niall O'Mahony. Subs - Jack Long for Gardiner, Victor Hennessy for O'Mahony both 47 mins, Matthew Priestly for Naughton 54m, Will Saunders for Minogue 56m.
Referee - Stephen Johnston (Louth).