Masita Paddy Drummond Cup final
Abbey VS (Donegal) 1-15 Ashbourne CS (Meath) 0-9
ABBEY Vocational School from Donegal Town have followed St Joseph’s, Donaghmore to the Danske Bank MacLarnon and Paddy Drummond Cups, finishing their season with a double-scores victory over Ashbourne CS from Meath in the Drummond final in St Tiernach’s Park, Clones on Saturday.
A lead of seven points at the break meant that the hard work had been done. Ashbourne did hit back with the first four points of the third quarter but Kevin Muldoon set Conor Meehan up for a 42nd minute point and the south Donegal school had rediscovered their way to the finish line.
Muldoon and Meehan were superb for the winners, even though the latter missed a few frees. Others to stand out were the Carr brothers, Callum McCrea and Conor McCahill.
It was McCahill who won an early ball and found Meehan for the opening point. Michael O’Sullivan responded with a point for Ashbourne and the Meath team even took the lead at 0-3 to 0-2 with further scores from O’Sullivan and Dylan Kettle (free).
But they failed to hit the target again in the first half with Abbey taking control around the middle of the pitch. Meehan hit two points to give them the lead and then Aaron McGrory, Muldoon, Meehan (free), Turlough Carr (twice) and McGrory again tagged on some top class points to give the Ulster side a 0-10 to 0-3 interval lead.
Ashbourne were on top for the first 10 minutes of the second half and closed the gap with two points from Michael O’Sullivan, a free from Dylan Kettle and a fourth point from Michael McIvor. They also clocked up four wides before Muldoon and Meehan combined to get the Abbey show back on track again.
Seanan Carr and Conor McCahill added scores before Turlough Carr sent McCahill through for the only goal.
Deep in added time, Daniel McIntyre finished the scoring with the final point as Abbey followed St Eunan’s, Letterkenny (1979) and De La Salle, Ballyshannon (1980) as the only Donegal schools to bring home All-Ireland titles.
Abbey VS C Meehan 0-6, 3f, C McCahill 1-2, K Muldoon and A McGrory 0-2 each, T Carr, S Carr and D McIntyre 0-1 each.
Ashbourne M O’Sullivan 0-6, D Kettle 0-2 frees, M McIvor 0-1.