SECTION C BOYS FOR LARGE SCHOOLS (25 teams competed)
FINAL
St.Colmcille's Kells 2 Donacarney 1
St.Colmcille's Kells and Donacarney Boys contested a thrilling final of the SECTION C BOYS for large schools with Kells eventually edging out a powerful Donacarney side.There was little between the two sides in the first half with both keepers Aaron Browne and Mark Farrelly pulling off some breathtaking saves. Man of the match Fionn Reilly (Kells) opened the scoring with a superb strike with his cultured left foot before Tom Reilly equalised for John Joe Conneally's Donacarney side.The game seemed set for extra time until Fionn Reilly went on one of his mazy runs before unleashing a piledriver which sailed into the bottom right-hand corner,sparking wild celebrations amongst the Kells supporters.Ryan Daly and Captain Siarhei Lipinski were outstanding for Donal Barrett's Kells school who had beaten St.Oliver's Navan by 3-1 in their semi-final.
Donacarney's Robert Cashman,Tom Reilly and Aaron Hanlon impressed most and had beaten an excellent St.Joseph's by 2-1 in a tightly contested semi-final.The East Meath school have been very prominent in the business end of this section over the years.They were unfortunate to come up against a particularly skillful Kells side who could well go a lot further in this nationwide competition
Referee for many of the games was ex-League of Ireland legend Mick Neville (FAI) who won no less than seven league championships and five FAI Cup medals in his career .He also presented the prizes to both teams afterwards and remarked " The standard of football in this section was very high with many teams playing a good passing game. I was also very impressed with the sportsmanship between all the teams and the way the whole competition was organised for the full five days in Meath"
DONACARNEY 1.Mark Farrelly 2.Aaron Hanlon 3.Conor Murphy 4.Robert Cashman 5.Jordan Donnelly 6.Tom Reilly 7.David O'Neill 8.Sam Messayeh
ST.COLMCILLE'S KELLS 1. Aaron Browne 2.Pierce Fleming 3. Paddy Dillon 4. Siarhei Lipenski 5.Fionn Reilly 6.Ryan Daly 7.Mark Carrick 8.Freddie Newman