| St.
Louis Dig Deep and Deliver Another Ulster Title - 10/11/03
B.T. Ulster Colleges Herald Cup
St. Louis
Grammar School, Kilkeel 1-09
Loreto College, Coleraine 1-06
St Louis, Kilkeel
win Ulster Colleges Herald Cup |
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Martin Clarke being presented
with the cup by Ulster College Treasurer Sean McGourty |
Team celebrating with cup |
Martin Clarke with the cup |
The talented young gaelic footballers of
St. Louis Grammar School, Kilkeel have broken new ground
in their ventures with the Ulster ‘B’ Colleges Championships.
The BT Herald Cup (‘B’ Colleges equivalent of the Rannafast
Cup), has eluded St. Louis for the best part of 10 years.
The frustration of frequent semi-final defeats and two final
defeats has made the Herald Cup a ‘Holy Grail’ quest. However,
in blowy conditions at St. Teresa’s pitch on the Glen Road,
in Belfast the St. Louis boys finally made the dream become
a reality as they toppled a very physical Loreto College,
Coleraine team.
The weather conditions were to play a
crucial part in this game, a fact that St. Louis Captain,
Martin Clarke knew only too well. On winning the toss, he
opted for his team to play against the wind, for the first
half. The story of the half came down to St. Louis containing
the Derry school to a minimum lead. The normally accurate
Clarke and Luke Toner found their efforts drift agonisingly
wide and indeed it took the best part of fourteen minutes
for the Kilkeel side to register their first score.
Loreto, however, were doing their best to build up a lead
and would surely have succeeded but for some find defending
from Damien Sherry, John Fitzpatrick and Luke Byrne. Two
long range points (1 free) from midfielder Frank Kealy was
encouraging for the St. Louis prospects.
The Derry school finally got a break-through
as regular target man Lorcan McCloskey managed to get free
from the ever vigilant John Fitzpatrick and rifled a fierce
shot into the roof of the Kilkeel net, leaving Colm Curran
with no- chance. However, Curran would not be beaten again,
as he pulled a series of fine saves to frustrate the Derry
school. St. Louis replied with a well taken point from Luke
Toner, St.Louis only other score in the first- half. St.
Louis were guilty of missing relatively simple chances,
but the players would later claim that playing against the
wind was a real lottery in relation to shooting accuracy.
Coleraine steadily increased their lead
from the boot of Sean Leo McGolderick as he slotted over
two long range points from frees. Much to their frustration
this was their last scores of the half, the efforts of the
St. Louis half-back line Andrew Sloan, Eamon Kelly and Ferghal
Doyle was proving stubborn to break down. A noticeable feature
of the game was the rather robust tackling on Martin Clarke.
Coleraine had obviously one some research and identified
him as a major threat. Eventually, the referee started to
reprimand the Derry tactics just before the interval. Kilkeel
were probably happy to go into the break just five points
adrift with the scoreline reading St. Louis 0-2, Loreto
1-4.
The most noticeable aspects of the Kilkeel
approach to this and other games this year has been their
discipline and their coolness under pressure. The features
of their play would really begin to pay off as Coleraine
engaged in a series of negative tactics, which included
feigning injuries to waste time and, more sinister, the
physical abuse of some Kilkeel players, noticeably Martin
Clarke and Christopher Morgan. However, this did not deter
the St. Louis team from its mission and the Mourne lads
got the deserved breakthrough as Martin Clarke tore through
the Coleraine defence and laid the ball off the waiting
Christopher Morgan. Morgan kept a cool head as he slotted
the ball under the outstretched Gary Mullan in the Coleraine
goal. The writing was clearly on the wall for the Derry
school as Martin Clarke added two more points from frees
to level the game. To their credit, the Derry lads dug deep
and defended fiercely, but the onslaught from the Kilkeel
team was relentless. The game boiled over into melees on
at least two occasions, but the strong discipline of the
Kilkeel lads dusted themselves off and got on with the contest.
Against the run of play Coleraine did
manage to score two further points from midfielder Frank
Kealy and the towering McCloskey, but they also squandered
a number of chances as target man Lorcan McCloskey and Sean
Leo McGolderick struggle to judge the wind. St. Louis were
un-perturbed as the lively Christopher Killen was introduced
and signalled a greater sense of mobility would develop
in the Kilkeel attack. St. Louis played the Coleraine team
at their own game, inviting tackles, drawing the inevitable
frees which Martin Clarke happily slotted over the bar.
Indeed, Clarke hit another four points without reply, the
lad recently voted BT Ulster Colleges ‘Captain Of Captains’
was putting on a mesmerising display of leadership and skill,
even the negative tactics used by the Coleraine team on
trying to stop him would prove ineffective.
With the impressive Peter Fitzpatrick,
Hugh Magee and Gerard McCartan coming more into the game
it was only a matter of time before St. Louis scored again.
Unfortunately for the Kilkeel school an opening for Patrick
Bourke was well saved by Mullan in the Coleraine goals.
However, St. Louis finished their scoring with a fine opportunist
point from the exciting young Attical prospect Andrew Sloan.
Coach Steven McVeigh obviously has his
team well trained as their superior fitness proved crucial
in the closing ten minutes. St. Louis ran out winners by
a three point margin and the BT Ulster Colleges Herald Cup
was on its way to Kilkeel for the first time in their history.
It has been an amazing few years for St.
Louis in Ulster Colleges Gaelic football as this victory
represented their fifth Ulster ‘B’ Colleges title in four
years. With past pupils like John Clarke on the Down Senior
Panel and various Down Recent and current Minors such as
James Colgan, Joseph Ireland, Glenn Burden, Eamon McConville
and Aidan Flanagan making a name for themselves on the inter-county
scene, St. Louis is rapidly becoming a nursery for county
players to compete with the Newry schools. It won’t be long
before the names of Martin Clarke, Hugh Magee, Gerard McCartan,
Luke Toner will be competing in the red and black of Down.
St. Louis Team;
Colm Curran (Bryansford), Damien Sherry (An Riocht), John
Fitzpatrick (Ballymartin), Luke Byrne (Bryansford), Andrew
Sloan (Atticall) 0-1, Eamon Kelly (Rostrevor), Fergal Doyle
(An Riocht), Gerard McCartan (Rostrevor), Hugh Magee (Longstone),
Martin Clarke (An Riocht Cpt ) 0-7, Luke Toner (Castlewellan)
0-1, Peter Fitzpatrick (Ballymartin), Christopher Morgan
(Atticall)1-0, Patrick Bourke (Rostrevor), John Magee (Atticall)
.
Subs;
Liam O’Hare (Ballymartin), Christopher Killen (An Riocht),
Ryan O’Hare (Ballymartin), Ryan Sloan (Atticall), Liam Harper
(An Riocht), Conor Fitzpatrick (Ballymartin), Kevin Quinn
(Atticall), Michael Hardy (An Riocht),
Allen Murney (An Riocht). James Clerkin (Rostrevor).
Loreto College, Coleraine
G Mullan, R Mullan, K Doherty, F McIlvar, J Quinn, S Mullan,
E Mullan, F Kealey(0-3), S L McGolderick (Capt)(0-2), F
McKay, M Quinn, K Tasker-Lynch, J McNicholl, L McCloskey
(1-1), S Dooey.
Subs;
P Burns, M Kelly, E McKeown, E Kelly, P Boyle, R Bartley,
L Morrow, C Smyth, C Kealey, B McCusker.
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