St. Pat’s vs Ashbourne C.S (4th of October 2022)
Tuesday was St. Pat’s second game of the Leinster League. It was local rivals Ashbourne that had to travel to Navan to face a St. Pat’s side who were missing a few key players due to Minor Finals in the coming weeks. Having lost their first game in the league to Coláiste Eoin, it was crucial that St. Pat’s won this game.
It was Matthew Kealy who got the first score of the game after excellently slotting a 45 over the bar in the second minute of the game. This was one of 5 placed balls from the 45 that Matthew scored. Ashbourne answered with a point a few minutes later which was the last score for a period of 15 minutes. Ciaran Quinn slotted over a free 19 minutes into the game followed by another 45 from Matthew Kealy. Pats final score of the half came from the boot of Ciaran Quinn after Ashbourne committed a foul just outside the 21 yard line. The half time score read St. Pat’s 0-4 Ashbourne C.S. 0-4.
St. Pat’s started the second half off with a bang, a well worked move finished off by goal scorer Billy Smyth saw St. Pat’s jump into an early lead. Matthew Kealy stepped up again, scoring a very impressive free off the ground around 50 yards from the goal. Points from Ben Corkery and Andrew Canavan without response from the Ashbourne side saw Pats jump into a 6 point lead.
In the 40th minute, St. Pat’s added another goal scored by Lorcán O’Connor. With points from Oisin O’Niell, Billy Smyth, Lorcán O’Connor and 2 more 45s from Matthew Kealy helped St.Pat’s win the game 2-13 to 0-7. A very good result for St. Pat’s which gets them up and running in this year’s league.
St Pat’s team: Oisin O’Hare, Darren Hughes, Breandán Mc Guinness, Cormac Liggan, Lorcán O’Connor(1-1), James Reeves, Matthew Kealy(0-5), Tadhg Martyn, Lorcan Hughes, Ciaran Quinn(0-2), Andrew Canavan(0-1), Ben Corkery(0-1), Billy Smyth(1-1), Neil McGinley, Luke Cahill.
By Colin Scanlon
