REPORT: Heywood CS reign supreme and bring All Ireland Schools football title back to Laois

Heywood Community School are All Ireland Champions after a titanic battle with Ennistymon CBS. Two goals from Shaun Fitzpatrick proved crucial as Heywood came out the right end of a entertaining game of football in Duggan Park, Ballinasloe on Saturday afternoon. They withheld a brief Ennistymon comeback who did reduce the deficit to a single point midway through the second half, but Heywood found another gear, weathered the storm and powered themselves over the finish line to claim the glory.

Heywood Community School 2-7

Ennistymon CBS 0-8

All IRELAND POST PRIMARY SCHOOLS SENIOR 'C' FOOTBALL FINAL

The opening exchanges were extremely cagey with mistakes plentiful and both sides enjoying a high turnover count from their respective defences.

Heywood opened the scoring after a monster score from the left foot of Brian Duggan inside the opening minute. However, it didn’t take Ennistymon long to find their range, and they were level just one minute later when both midfielders combined, and it was Sean Rynne who equalised for the Clare outfit.

Scores were at a premium in the first half and from the start it was obvious that any score in the game would be well earned. Heywood midfielder Cathal Murphy picked up a knock early on and he made his way to the edge of the square. He was on one leg when the ball arrived into him, but he did terrifically to somehow kick a score for Heywood with the point proving to be his final contribution, hobbling off after just six minutes of play.

Rynne equalised again for Ennistymon just a minute later as scores dried up for a period midway through the first half, but Heywood’s Alan McWey fired over a long range free to nudge his side ahead once more. McWey added a second free to double their advantage as we approached half time.

Remarkably, Rynne was Ennistymon’s only scorer in the first half and he added his third of the day, a well worked team score, but Ennistymon were struggling to break down a solid Heywood defence.

Heywood did have two decent goal opportunities in the first half. Shaun Fitzpatrick showed tremendous pace to show his marker a clean pair of heals and when he cut in along the end line, his powerful shot was hit straight at Ennistymon goalkeeper John Nea who did well to block the shot.

Five minutes later, Conor McWey broke at pace through the middle and when the ball was put into his path, he was goal bound but couldn’t direct his shot away from Nea who saved well again.

It was a feisty affair with four first half yellow cards and Heywood also lost their manager to the stand after referee Brendan Healy sent him to the stand for dissent.

A third McWey free for the Laois outfit just before the half time break gave them a two-point lead at Healy’s half time whistle.

Alan McWey increased the Heywood lead to three from another placed ball two minutes into the second half. They almost had the ball in the back of the net. Fitzpatrick did well again along the endline and his fisted pass across the face of the goal found Conor McWey who could not generate enough power in his fisted effort as Nea got across to clear the ball off his line, much to the relief of the Ennistymon defence.

Ennistymon began to find their stride and they began to mount their comeback. Shane Woods reduced the deficit to one when substitute Brendy Rouine set him up. Moments later, Eanna Rouine fired over an inspirational score after he had picked the ball up in the corner before turning and shooting from a tight angle.

With the lead down to a single point, Ennistymon had all the momentum, but Heywood came roaring back into the game.

Brian Duggan’s attempt at a point sailed high through the Ballinasloe sky and when it eventually came down, it was fisted to the net by Shaun Fitzpatrick who judged it beautifully to palm it past Nea.

Soon after, and with 50 minutes played, another high, long ball floated in fell luckily to Fitzpatrick when Ennistymon full back Dara Rouine misjudged the flight of the ball and it floated over his head and straight to Fitzpatrick who eventually bundled the ball home to increase Heywood’s lead to seven.

Ennistymon did hit three late points , two frees from substitute Brendy Rouine and a Sean Rynne points and it gave the Enistymon faithful brief hope, but it was Ballyroan Abbey and Heywood’s David McEvoy who had the final say as he left footed beauty ensured the Dr.Eamonn O’Sullivan Cup crossed back over the River Shannon and will spend the year in Heywood Community School.

Scorers

Heywood Community School: Shaun Fitzpatrick 2-0, Alan McWey 0-4F, Davin McEvoy, Cathal Murphy and Brian Duggan 0-1 each.

CBS Ennistymon: Sean Rynne 0-4 (0-1F), Brendy Rouine 0-2 (0-2F), Shane Woods, Eanna Rouine 0-1 each.

TEAMS

Heywood Community School: Liam Kehoe (Spink); Tadhg Dineen (St Joseph’s), Ryan Quinlan (Spink), Sam Quinn (Ballyroan Abbey); Paddy Whelan (Ballyroan Abbey), Conor McWey (Ballyroan Abbey), Killian Byrne (Ballyroan Abbey); Davin McEvoy (Ballyroan Abbey), Cathal Murphy (The Harps); Alan McWey (Ballyroan Abbey), Shaun Fitzpatrick (Ballyroan Abbey), Cathal Lynam (Spink); Conor Fitzpatrick (Timahoe), Brian Duggan (Spink), Ben McDonald (Ballyroan Abbey). Subs: Colin Byrne (Ballyroan Abbey) for Cathal Murphy inj (6 mins) Michael Fleming (St Josephs) for Conor Fizpatrick (56). Dara Phelan (Ballyroan Abbey) for Ben McDonald (60).

CBS Ennistymon: John Nea; James Cullinan, Dara Rouine, Sean Conneally; Liam Cotter, Joshua Guyler, Brian McNamara; Shane Woods, Sean Rynne; Niall Hogan, Joshua Vaughan, Marc O’Loughlin; Joshua O’Brien, Eanna Rouine, Mark Kelleher. Subs: Brendy Rouine for Joshua O’Brien (35 mins) Seanai McMahon for Niall Hogan (40 mins), Conor Morrissey for John Nea inj (50) MacDara O’Keefe for Brian McNamara (62)