Terenure College 2-15 Athboy Community College 0-16

Terenure College U-16’s created history on Thursday last when they defeated Athboy Community College from Meath to win the school’s first ever Gaelic Football Leinster title. The Dublin side were however made to fight all the way by a strong Athboy team; indeed it was only in the last few minutes that Terenure took the lead for the first time.
Terenure got off to slow start and the chances of them winning their first ever Leinster title looked very slim after the first quarter. At this stage of the game Athboy were leading 0-7 to 0-1. Athboy were full value for their lead having kicked some excellent scores and could has been further ahead but for the resolute defending of Dan Hynes, Fiachra Bagnall and Philip Smith in the Terenure defence.
It was at this stage Terenure started to wake up, the midfield pairing of Niall Lalor and Harrison Brewer started to dominate, while points from Jack Wright, Niall O’Sullivan and a couple from Danny McCormack reduced the deficit. This mini revival meant that Terenure gave themselves a chance in the second half, going in at the break trailing 0-10 to 0-5.
On the resumption Terenure continued to improve, further points from McCormack and Philip Smith who had moved from centre back to a more attacking role helped to cut Athboy’s lead. Despite their best efforts Terenure were unable to pull ahead as the two teams exchanged points. A Jack Wright goal midway through the second half brought Terenure to within a point of the Meath side. Athboy did not give up answering with two quick points to open up a three point lead.
While Terenure enjoyed the majority of possession they could not convert it into scores. With five minutes remaining they trailed 0-16 to 1-10 and it looked like they would ultimately fall short. In fact it took a brilliant goal from Niall Lalor to rescue Terenure. The midfielder’s excellent strike seemed to lift the whole side. From then until the final whistle Terenure scored five unanswered points, through Niall O’Sullivan, Smith, Wright and McCormack to secure victory. It was fitting that captain Philip Smith raised the trophy afterwards as e lead by example throughout the game.

Team: Ronan Deasy, Sean Farrelly, Dan Hynes, Stephen Johnston, Fiachra Bagnall, Philip Smith (capt) (0-2), Oliver Barrett, Niall Lalor (1-2), Harrison Brewer, Jack Wright (1-3), Danny McCormack (0-5 (2f)), Niall O’Sullivan (0-4), Graham Doyle, Carl Gibney, Kevin Cannon.
Subs: Jordan Lynch for K.Cannon, Mike Murphy for S.Farrelly and Stephen O’Neill for G. Doyle. Not Used: Daniel McCarthy, Tom English, Cathal Condon, Sean White, Sean McKenna, Conor McKevitt, Eoghan Haddock, Simon Keogh, Colin Jones, Alex Trimble, Jack O’Dwyer.