McCormack hits winner as Buckley stars in Marist victory

An heroic Marist College took the prized and notable scalp of St. Mel"s College, Longford, at Emmet Park, Killoe, last Friday afternoon, when they narrowly overcame the 29-times provincial champions in this Leinster Colleges SF "A" Round 2 Qualifier. This was indeed a simply terrific win for the Shannonside school who were forced to take the field minus three of their first choice defenders and for whom the anticipated debut of Ian Coffey (captain of 2008 Leinster champions Athlone Community College) did not materialise. Michael Dermody and Con O"Meara"s charges were somewhat unlucky when narrowly losing out to Patrician College, Newbridge, at Tubberclair in Round 1 proper last December. They received a bye in Round 1 of the qualifiers. St. Mel"s, on the other hand, lost heavily to Good Counsel, New Ross, in their opening game, but a 14-point win over fellow-countymen Moyne CS on Monday of last week, renewed confidence in the famous GAA nursery as they faced the young Athlonians at the splendid Kehoe venue. Weather conditions were ideal for this midland derby, with bright sunshine and only a hint of a breeze which made for a perfect setting, in contrast to recent days. Marist College were forced to re-arrange their defence due to a triple injury handicap. Full-back and captain, Eoin Slevin, Seán Dowling and Séamus Connaughton didn"t line out, with Paul Furey taking over at the fringe of the square. Nigel Farrell was called up at left corner-back, and Ronan Stack moved from wing-forward to half-back, and was replaced by Shane Kilroy-Glynn in attack. St. Mel"s selectors Declan Rowley and Jimmy Gacquin gave a note of confidence to the team who started against Moyne, and their starting line-up contained seven players from the host club, playing on their home sod. With the stand filled with a vociferous and naturally partisan Mel"s following, the odds seemed stacked against the depleted Shannonsiders as referee Declan Hunt signalled a start to proceedings at Emmet Park. The pattern of events in this game was manifest in the early exchanges. The large home support was on song in the opening minutes as Darren Quinn and Conor Quaine lofted over a brace of points (1st and 2nd minutes). Moving the ball fluently and intelligently, the Blues were creating plenty of opportunities, but, from an early stage, poor marksmanship crept steadily into their play. A lovely point from centre-forward Jack Carty opened the Athlone account on 5 minutes, and they weren"t far off a major score when Aidan Connaughton saw his shot hop off a Longford defender before being cleared. The Athlone defence continued to mop up a good deal of Mel"s pressure, with Ronan Stack, in particular, and Maryland"s Trevor Farrell seen to advantage in clearing their lines, but Callum McCormack had the Marist on terms with a fine effort after 13 minutes. This was followed by a brilliant inter-passing movement featuring David Fagan, Jack Carty and David McCormack; Fagan was just wide with his parting shot. We then witnessed a spell of terrible profligacy from the Mel"s attack which produced four wides in as many minutes, but a 17-minute barren scoring spell (for them) came to an end when wing-forward Paddy Thompson pointed. Marist midfielder and Tubberclair clubman, Robert Buckley, would go on to become one of his side"s heroes in this qualifier and the No. 8 gave a glimpse of what was to come with a positively brilliant point from a move initiated by Ronan Stack, with full-back Paul Furey coming upfield to boost his forward colleague. With two minutes to go to half-time, Mel"s hard working full-forward, Darren Quinn (Clonguish), was not far away from finding the net, but had to be satisfied with a point. Just on the short whistle, a free from Callum McCormack hit the post, but it all ended well, as David McCormack first-timed the rebound over the bar to tie the contest for the third time. On the general run of play, perhaps Mel"s should have been in front at half-time. The statistics showed them amassing 8 wides as against 4 for the Shannonsiders, but the scoreboard is the ultimate arbitrator and it read 0-4 each at the interval. The marksmanship malady, which proved tormentor-in-chief to the Longford lads in the opening half, would return to haunt them on the resumption, with midfielder Simon Kiernan and Darren Quinn increasing their wide-count to double figures in the early stages. Corner-forward Mark Hughes pointed in the 37th minute to restore their lead. But the pendulum was poised to swing decisively in favour of a resurgent Athlone side, who literally seized the initiative with a display brimful of courage, heart, determination and ability. Callum McCormack, well marshalled by Mel"s full-back Gary Connell in the opening 30 minutes, now exercised his influence in no uncertain manner. His 40th minute equalising point was the precursor of a spell of total dominance by the Primrose and Blue, and he then drew a good save from Blues custodian Tadhg Devlin. Robbie Benson came on to the Marist team who, in the 43rd minute, took the lead for the first time with another superb point by midfielder Robert Buckley. A now rare St. Mel"s attack saw Marist custodian Conor Fitzgibbon bring off a smart save from wing-forward Paddy Thompson. But the Shannonsiders stormed upfield with renewed vigour, with Robbie Benson narrowly off target, but the brilliant Buckley once again showed the way when soloing through on the left wing and scoring with aplomb, his third point from play. Jack Carty converted a "45" in splendid manner to put his team 0-8 to 0-5 ahead entering the final 10 minutes. It was now Athlone"s turn to miss chances as they strove manfully to clinch victory. The Mel"s management team introduced a plethora of subs in a desperate attempt to get back on terms and they were eventually rewarded when, from a Darren Quinn probing centre, midfielder Simon Kiernan rose highest to fist to the net for the game"s only goal and crucially the equaliser, with 4 minutes left. Both teams then fought tenaciously to produce a winner, but, on this occasion, Marist College would prevail. In the last minute of normal time, Callum McCormack replicated his heroics for his club Maryland (in the final stages of their IFC final replay win over Ballynacargy last year,) when once again landing what proved the winning point of this confrontation. In injury-time, Mel"s were awarded a free about 30 metres out, but Darren Quinn effort floated out to the left of the upright and wide. Marist had, therefore, secured a famous win over one of the aristocrats of college football, and so advanced to meet St. Joseph"s College, Rochfortbridge, in an all Westmeath clash in Round 2 proper. This was truly a fabulous victory, chiselled from adversity, for a highly motivated Marist College side. In a team of many stars, there were par-plus performances from Robert Buckley, Callum McCormack, Luke Kelly, Paul Furey, Ronan Stack, Aidan Connaughton and Jack Carty, but the entire squad deserve plaudits for a landmark win over tough opposition. SCORERS - Marist College: C McCormack, R Buckley 0-3 each; J Carty 0-2 (0-1 "45"); D McCormack 0-1. St. Mel"s: S Kiernan 1-0; D Quinn 0-2; C Quaine, P Thompson, M Hughes 0-1 each. Marist College, Athlone: Conor Fitzgibbon; Nigel Farrell, Paul Furey, Luke Kelly; Ronan Stack, Trevor Farrell, Dara Cunningham; Robert Buckley, Aidan Connaughton; David McCormack, Jack Carty, Shane Kilroy-Glynn; David Fagan, Callum McCormack, Brian Mulvihill. Subs: Robbie Benson for Cunningham (42 mins). St. Mel"s, Longford: Tadhg Devlin; Daniel Keenan, Gary Connell, Darren Bratten; Conor Clarke, Seán Monaghan, Gerard Campbell; Simon Kiernan, Daniel Keogh; Conor Quaine, John Keegan (capt), Paddy Thompson; Mark Hughes, Darren Quinn, Pádraig McCormack. Subs: Liam Connerton for McCormack (36); Michael Farrell for Hughes (53); Daniel Mimnagh for Clarke (56); Tom Madden for Connerton (57); Ronan Keogh for Quaine (58). Referee: Declan Hunt (Roscommon).