Summerhill College reached the final of the Connacht Colleges Senior A Championship for the first time since 1985 with this dramatic extra-time victory over St. Muirdeach’s, Ballina, at Kilcoyne Park, Tubbercurry, on Sunday last.

The Sligo boys hopes ofreaching the decider looked tobe in tatters when they trailedby four points with justminutes remaining but a goalby Niall McManus helpedthem to force the game toextra time.

Having salvaged a lateequaliser, Summerhilldominated the additional timeperiod to record a famousvictory and stay on course forConnacht gloryBoth sides started verynervously but it wasSummerhill who were thefirst to record a score on eightminutes with Niall Murphyfinishing to the net followingta neat flick from PatrickHeraghty. This was big blowfor Muredach’s so early on butthey replied five minutes laterwith Dara McCormackpointing from a free. Anotherfree a minute later from thesame man just left one pointbetween the sides.

Cillian Foody put the sideson level terms aftrer 19minutes but Summerhillreplied almost immediatelywith Paul Logan pointingvery well from a free from allof 35 metres which was thebest score of the first half.Summerhill had furtherchances to extend their leadbefore the break but theycouldn’t convert efforts fromPaul Logan, John McGowanand Niall Collery and went inwith a 1-1 to 0-3 lead at theinterval.

Muredach’s came out thetraps in determined fahsionafter the break andMcCormack converted a freewithin a minute of the restartto put the sides all squareagain.

Collery put the Sligo teamback in front with a welltaken free but McCormacklevelled the game once againas he blasted over the bar. TheMayo school went ahead forthe first time on 49 minutes,McCormack pointing expertlyto leave the 0-6, 1-2.Muredach’s extended theirlead to two points withsubstitute Billy Dohertyturning his man and pointing.Two further scores for theBallina side left the score 0-9,1-2 with only four minutesremaining.

It looked then as ifSummerhill’s chances ofreaching the final were gonebut they refused to throw inthe towel and gave themselvesrenewed hope when substituteNiall McManus flicked theball to the net after KillianSweeney’s initial effort hadbeen blocked. Then, with timealmost up, Collery fired over abrilliant equaliser from wayout on the wing. Summerhillhad the momentum in extratime, adding on points fromCollery, and Heraghty. Theycontinued to dominate in thesecond half of extra time withHeraghty extending theiradvantage to three points.

Padric Collins reduced thedeficit to just two points withseven minutes remaining butthe Sligo boys refused topanic. Heraghty and Collinsexchanged points in anexciting finish beforeSummerhill sealed victorywhen Niall McManus took agreat pass from Heraghty andfinshed to the net.

SUMMERHILL COLLEGE: Vinny Cadden, Eoin Flanagan,David Burke, Don McCormack, Donal Brady, Killian Sweeney,Gary Feeney, Brian Monaghan, John McGowan, Michael O’Hehir,Niall Murphy(1-0), Darragh Mc Connon , Patrick Heraghty(0-3),Paul Logan(0-1,1f), Niall Collery(0-3,1f)Subs Used: Sean Peyton, Dylan Healy, Niall McManus (2-0),Graham Kelly, Cathal Finneran, Cormac Doherty

ST .MUREDACH’S: Mark Duffy, Niall Campion, Andrew Stutt,Dara Egan, Gerard O Donnell, Ciaran Twomey, Cian Burke,Michael Walsh , Sean McGarry , Dara McCormack(0-5,3f), KeithRutledge ,David Twomey, Padric Collins(0-2), Brian Curley, CillianFoody(0-2)Subs used: Barry Higgins, Billy Doherty (0-1), Ronan Newry,Paul O’Grady

Referee Declan Hunt (Roscommon)

The Connacht Final between Summerhill and St. Gerard’sCastlebar has been fixed for Saturday March 13th.Venue and throw-in time to be confirmed.