St Jarlath’s College open Connacht Championship campaign with win over Summerhill

Six members of this year’s Galway minor football panel also featured for St Jarlath’s, including goalkeeper Evan Burke, Keelan Moran, Adam Healy, Ben Devaney, Ryan Connolly and Mylo Higgins.

Despite conceding 1-1 in the opening six minutes, St Jarlath’s refused to panic and quickly worked their way back into the contest. Once they established control, they rarely looked back, producing a strong finish to secure an impressive nine-point victory.

It took five minutes for the opening score to arrive, with Allan Smyth combining with Shay McMorrow, whose pointed attempt sailed over the head of St Jarlath’s goalkeeper Evan Burke and into the back of the net. Sligo minor footballer Ryan Lang extended the hosts’ advantage to four points a minute later. Summerhill’s starting team included nine players who featured in Sligo’s narrow defeat to Galway in this year’s Connacht Minor Football Championship semi-final.

However, St Jarlath’s responded impressively, with three unanswered points from Adam Healy, Martin Rattigan and Rory Fahey reducing the deficit to the minimum. A two-point free from Robert Hynes then edged the Galway school in front for the first time. Healy and Luke Treacy added further efforts to move the 2022 Connacht champions 0-7 to 1-1 ahead after 17 minutes.

The Sligo outfit remained in touch through Micheal Harte and Conor Davey, but St Jarlath’s began to find their attacking rhythm and outscored their opponents 2-1 to 0-3 during a decisive four-minute spell.

Their opening goal came following excellent build-up play involving Healy and Fahey, with the ball eventually finding its way to Galway U20 panellist Cian Hynes, who unleashed a powerful finish into the roof of the net. St Jarlath’s struck for a second goal shortly afterwards when Rattigan and Fahey combined to create an opportunity for Robert Hynes, who showed great composure to slot the ball into the net. Those two goals gave the Jack Grugan and James Boyle-managed side a commanding 2-9 to 1-6 advantage at the interval.

Robert Hynes brought his personal tally to 1-4 by the 32nd minute, but Summerhill enjoyed their strongest spell of the contest shortly afterwards. Lang, Danny Feeney and Harte reduced the deficit to 2-10 to 1-10 as the hosts threatened to stage a comeback.

Summerhill then had a glorious opportunity to draw level, but Johnny Coyle’s close-range effort was brilliantly saved by Burke, who produced a crucial intervention to preserve his side’s advantage.

Galway minor footballer Ryan Connolly, who was only fit enough to feature from the bench, helped settle St Jarlath’s with two successive white flags to give the visitors some much-needed breathing space. Ben Devaney, who proved to be an excellent attacking outlet on the edge of the square throughout the contest, played a key role in St Jarlath’s third goal. He showed great awareness to lay the ball off to Robert Hynes, who demonstrated superb composure to fire his shot past Summerhill goalkeeper Broderick.

Substitute Jamie Noone also made an immediate impact with a point from the bench as Grugan and Boyle’s charges moved 3-13 to 1-10 ahead after 54 minutes. The Yeats County outfit could only manage a two-pointer from Brian McGauran and a point from Conor Davey during the closing stages as St Jarlath’s finished strongly.

Noone, Keelan Moran and Niall Martin rounded off an impressive nine-point victory for the 49-time Connacht champions, who recovered from a difficult opening to produce a convincing performance.

Pearse Tighe, Rattigan and Moran impressed in defence for the winners, while Cian Hynes controlled proceedings around the middle third. In attack, Robert Hynes, Devaney and Healy caused plenty of problems for the Summerhill defence. Danny Feeney, Conor Davey and Ryan Lang battled hard for the hosts as they attempted to work their way back into the contest, but Summerhill will now look to bounce back against Sligo Combined Schools in round two.

St Jarlath’s will aim to move a step closer to securing their place in the knockout stages when they host Ballinrobe Community School on Wednesday, November 25. Ballinrobe will face Sligo Combined Schools in the other Group One fixture on Monday evening at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence.

ST JARLATH’S COLLEGE: Evan Burke (Tuam Stars); James Quinn (Corofin), Niall Smith (0-1, Tuam Stars), Pearse Tighe (Corofin); Conor Winston (Corofin), Martin Rattigan (0-1, Cortoon Shamrocks), Keelan Moran (0-1, Corofin); Rory Fahey (0-1, Corofin), Oisin Kelly (Corofin); Cian Hynes (1-0, Cortoon Shamrocks), Adam Healy (0-3, Corofin), Luke Treacy (0-1, Corofin); Robert Hynes (2-4, tpf, 0-1 45, Cortoon Shamrocks), Ben Devaney (Kilconly), Aaron O’Malley (Corofin). SUBS: Brett Kane for Kelly (Half-time), Ryan Connolly (0-2 Corofin) for Treacy (36 mins), Jamie Noone (0-2 Tuam Stars) for O’Malley (41 mins), Shane McWalter (Tuam Stars) for Rattigan (53 mins), Mylo Higgins (Tuam Stars) for Healy (54 minutes), Adam Harty (Corofin) for Cian Hynes (60 mins).

SUMMERHILL COLLEGE: James Broderick; Hugh O’Connell, Conor O’Hehir, Oscar Marron; Cian O’Flaherty, Danny Feeney (0-2), Pol Arnold; Conor Davey (0-2), Manus McManus; Micheal Harte (0-1), Ryan Lang (0-5, 0-1f), Allan Smyth; Johnny Coyle (0-1), Conor O’Dowd, Shay McMorrow (1-0). SUBS: Dylan Craig for O’Dowd (37 mins), Billy Filan for McMorrow (49 mins), Brian McGauran (0-2, tp) for Smyth (50 mins), Hugh Og Arnold for O’Hehir (53 mins).

REFEREE: John Gilmartin (Sligo)