First Brock Cup title for St Pat's

St Pat's, Cavan 1-11 Abbey CBS 0-9 St Patrick's College savoured lifting the Brock Cup for the first time in their history amidst joyous scenes in Clones today. The Cavan outfit lived up to their favourites' tag for this U15 and a half tournament and strolled off St Tiernach's Park as deserved winners thanks to a dominant second half performance over Abbey CBS. Such was their dominance that the 15-wides they accumulated over the course of the 60 minutes made no difference as they ran out comfortable winners. Pierce Smith's potent threat up front - scoring and setting up chances for teammates at will - helped St Patrick's overpower their Down opponents He set up Ronan O'Reilly for the opening point of the second half, while sub Dara Gannon squeezed over a great point in off the upright to put a goal between the teams. With Thomas Galligan dominating in midfield and Ben Conaty's pace causing serious problems for the Abbey defence, St Pat's took control and but for some awful shooting they would have been out of sight. A brace of points by Ryan Connolly, one by Pierce Smith and another by Conaty allowed St Pat's to surge ahead and Ronan O'Reilly made it 1-11 to 0 07 in the 53rd minute. Abbey took the bad look off the scoreboard by scoring the last two points of the game. The second half performance was built on the platform of Ryan Connolly's sensational goal in the 28th minute. Captain Connolly had been quiet up to this point before he rounded three backs and smashed the ball into the top corner. The style with which he took the goal was all the more commendable given he had earlier missed three scoreable frees. It masked a cagey performance in the opening half. Pat's had lined out with a defensive set-up, deploying two sweepers - Pierce Smith and Paul Leddy. However, the latter stages of the first half saw Leddy unshackled, allowing him to advance further forward, and Smith to maraud up front in the second half they had more joy. Having set up the team defensively they were unable to assert themselves on the game in the first half with the Newry team's bright forward play notching up four of the first five points. St Pat's first half scores came from Thomas Galligan (a monstrous 50 metre strike), Ronan O'Reilly and Ben Conaty, leaving them ahead by one point: 1-03 to 0-5 at the break. Among those who stood out in a fantastic team performance were Cian McManus, Thomas Galligan, Pierce Smith and Ben Conaty.