ALL-IRELAND COLLEGES SENIOR A FC SEMI-FINAL St Colman's, Newry 3-14 Dundalk Schools 1-9:ST COLMAN'S justified their favourites tag at Crossmaglen on Saturday afternoon when they qualified for the Hogan Cup final at the expense of a gallant but ultimately outclassed Dundalk Schools outfit.
The reigning champions set their stall out from the start and never looked back after powering their way to a seven-point lead at the break, with Caolan Mooney repeating his feat from the MacRory Cup final by bagging two goals.
To their credit, the Leinster champions battled away in the third quarter in an attempt to get back into the game but they were always playing catch up, with a late Shay McArdle goal confirming St Colman’s dominance.
Ciarán Byrne opened Dundalk’s account after eight minutes but by that stage they were already in trouble as Mooney, Tony McGreevey and the Johnston brothers, Ryan and Jerome, had all scored for the Newry school.
Mooney added another point before he burst through for a clinical finish to the bottom left hand corner of the net after a dozen minutes.
Dundalk were in big trouble and their cause wasn’t helped with midfielder and team captain Patrick Reilly having to depart the field injured. Byrne and Jerome Johnson traded points before Mooney bagged his second goal five minutes before the break.
Dundalk Schools were staring at a heavy defeat but in the final minute of the half a mistake from St Colman’s goalkeeper Matthew McNeice allowed Conal McKeever to score a goal to leave it 2-8 to 1-4 at the break.
Three points from Byrne helped reduce the deficit slightly in the third quarter but the holders still had the ability to pick off scores from Johnston and Kealan Haughey to keep their opponents at arm’s length.
Mooney and substitute Patrick Morgan then pushed them further in front before McArdle completed the scoring with a goal a minute from time.
ST COLMAN'S, NEWRY:M McNeice; M OHare, N Donnelly, J Haughey; D Brannigan, E Magee, K Haughey (0-1); R Johnson (0-1), C Gough, T Mulholland, P Casey, C Mooney (2-3), S McArdle (1-1), J Johnson (0-6), T McGreevy (0-1). Subs: P Morgan (0-1) for Mulholland, R Mussen for Mooney
DUNDALK SCHOOLS:D Breen; K Lenehan, D Smith, C McMenamin; Seán Thornton, D McMahon (0-1), S McAuley (0-1), P Reilly, J Stewart, K Hearty, A Sharkey, C Doyle, C Byrne (0-6), S Thornton, C McKeever (1-1). Subs: C Ryan for Reilly, R Williams for McMenamin, A Murphy for Shane Thornton, A English for Sean Thornton, P Lynch for McAuley.
Referee: P McEnaney(Monaghan).
