First Junior A title for St Mary’s Secondary School On Wednesday the 27th of January the junior footballers St. Marys Edenderry captured the South Leinster A Championship for the first time in the school’s history having traditionally being in the North Leinster Division. Not only is it a first ever South Leinster but also the first Junior title at the ‘A’ grade for the school. The game was played in Eire Og in County Carlow. The pitch, considering the rain of late was in good condition. St. Marys enjoyed early dominance in possession of the ball but it took the cool shooting of Conor McCarthy to get them ticking. Conor slotted over the first 3 points of the game giving Edenderry an early foothold in the game. Both teams were to trade points with a three point lead maintained by St. Marys. With 15 minutes gone Edenderry made the gap even bigger with Daniel Mills picking up a lovely pass from Gary Farrell to beat his man and finish to the top corner from a tight angle. This gave St. Marys Edenderry a 6 point cushion and in control of the game. As the half came to an end both teams traded scores with scores from Cian Farrell keeping Edenderry ticking along. Then with less than 5 minutes remaining in the half St. Peters scored a well worked goal to put only three points between the teams at half time. The second half of this game was a credit to both teams with both teams doing everything in their power to win. St. Peters played much better in the second half and looked dangerous in the early stages and picked off some lovely points. To their credit St. Marys responded with points of their own through Cian Farrell who moved into the full forward position. Both teams traded points and the gap was down to two with St. Marys still very much in command. With 10 minutes remaining the imperious Brian Milmoe went on a run from his No.6 berth and won a penalty having being taken down. Up stepped Cian Farrell but his penalty was well saved, from that resulting rebound St. Peters went on the attack and got through on goal with Aaron O Neill who was excellent throughout left one on one with very little he could do to prevent a goal. So having being in control throughout the game Edenderry now found themselves one point behind. With time running out St. Marys showed what they were made of, they attacked St. Peters and won two frees to put them in front again. First Ger Cunningham stepped up and drew the game level followed by a free from Cian Farrell. Edenderry held out the last few attacks by St. Peters with all six defenders and James Carey preventing any scores, in particular Aaron O Neill made a great save from a flicked ball from a St. Peters attacker. In the end the best team won with St. Peters showing why they have being so successful in recent years. The whole team excelled with all six defenders working very hard and snuffing out many attacks, James Carey performed brilliantly all over the field and worked very hard for his team. In midfield Mark Grehan and Gary Farrell worked together brilliantly. In the forwards everyone contributed, with Conor McCarthy providing a real impetuous in the full forward line with Cian Farrell and Ger Cunningham shouldering a lot of responsibility for the team. They advance to play St Aidan’s CBS Whitehall in the Leinster Semi-final on Tuesday February 23rd at 1.30, venue to be confirmed.