Quoted by the Meath Chronicle as ‘one of the best finals ever to grace Navan venue’, St. Paul’s boys won their first Boys Div 1 title since 2002/2003 against St. Mary’s Ashbourne in Pairc Tailteann on Friday 17th June.
St. Paul’s are immensely proud of our incredible football team and their coaches / mentors.
Ashbourne were the first to score, and showed some great defence early on. But this early show of strength only served to bring out the best from our boys, with two points in quick succession from Cormac Fitzsimons giving us the lead. St. Mary’s rallied and within a few minutes they were leading with 1-03 to our 0-4. But again the game swung back in favour of St. Paul’s with some great scores by Cormac Fitzsimons, Cillian Fitzsimons and Harry McGuirk. They put St. Paul’s ahead 2-08 to 1-03. St. Mary’s gained two more points before the half time whistle blew.
The second half saw a hotly contested game from both sides as St. Mary’s racked up two goals and three points within the first 5 minutes. The St. Paul’s boys took it all their stride, tipping away with regular scores keeping them in front from Eanna Kenny, Cormac Fitzsimons, Harry McGuirk, Cillian Fitzsimons and Darragh Ward. Leading by 3-12 to 3-06, victory was looking ever closer. St. Mary’s weren’t giving in that easily and sank another goal in the net, plus a couple of points, narrowing the lead to 2 points. With four minutes to go Harry McGuirk stepped up and, according to the Meath Chronicle “wrapped up the victory with one of the most stunning goals ever scored in Pairc Tailteann when he cut in from the left before executing a brilliant finish”.
Eanna Kenny accepted the cup with a moving speech paying tribute to mentors Ian Matthews, Ben Hoey and Padraic O’Connor, other staff members and most poignantly their much missed classmate Zak Moran. The day of the match would have been Zak’s 12th birthday. We hope you were watching Zak, and we dedicate this win to you!
Football Panel: Rían Mulvaney, Lewis Curran, Daniel St Ledger, Conan Tansey, Rían Carolan, Luke Murphy, Tomás Reilly, Daire Cromwell, Harry McGuirk, Éanna Kenny, Cormac Fitzsimons, Rúairí McDermott, Daragh Maguire, Darragh Ward, Cillian Fitzsimons, Jayden Gillen, Owen Geoghegan, Ben Brown, Tadhg Dunleavy, Jack McCarthy, Matthew Gribbin, Gabriel Phelan, Eoghan Flannery, Céilum Stynes, Tadhg Maguire.
