Despite strong performance Reilly's young Royals bow out
Meath Schools fought back brilliantly but just fell short against Maynooth in the Leinster Schools A Championship
Maynooth Educational Campus 3-7
Meath Schools 1-11
Despite looking like the stronger side for large parts of this contest, Meath Schools just fell short against Maynooth Educational Campus at Dunganny on Saturday afternoon. The result means that Kevin Reilly's side are now out of the Leinster Colleges SFC.
Three goals inside the first twenty minutes left Meath with a big task on their hands as they fell seven points behind. However, Reilly's army battled well and rattled off five points in succession before the halftime whistle to leave two points between the sides at the break.
For the opening twenty minutes of the second-half, Meath limited Maynooth to a single point and an Evan Kelly goal put Meath two points to the good with ten minutes left on the clock. However it was the Kildare side who finished strongest and coincidentally it was Blackhall Gaels native, Liam Jennings, who secured the final insurance point for Maynooth.
Meath got off to an electric start as Cian Duggan and Cathal Barron registered two early points. Maynooth responded with a point from Kieran Dunne.
10 minutes in Maynooth delivered the first of their killer blows when Aaron Larkin set up Aaron Mahoney who finished well to the back of the Meath net.
Evan Kelly, who was phenomenal for Meath, notched off the first of his scores in a Sean Kavanagh-esque manner. Kelly fooled two Maynooth defenders with a dummy solo before tapping over with the left.
Blackhall Gaels club man Liam Jennings secured Maynooths second goal with a lofty shot over the head of Jamie O'Reilly. A few minutes later a well-worked move led to Paddy Ryan setting up Paul O'Dea for Maynooth's third goal, and despite only securing four scores in total, Maynooth found themselves seven points ahead.
Kevin Reilly's men needed to shift up the gears quickly. Gearoid O'Malley almost hit back perfectly for Meath but his shot on goal was well blocked by full-back Finn Dowling. Moments later O'Malley converted a short-range free and that seemed to settle the young Royals.
Wing forwards Duggan and Michael Hoey tagged on two more points before Evan Kelly struck a beautiful 45' to reduce the gap back to three. Kelly's score was Meath's fourth inside two minutes.
O'Malley secured a second free before Meath was denied a goal once more. This time keeper, Josh Flood, came to Kildare's rescue to deny Duggan a clear goal chance. Soon after Brian O'Connor blew the halftime whistle and the sides went in at the break with Maynooth leading 3-1 to Meath's 0-8.
Maynooth opened the scoring in the second-half with what transpired to be their only point between the 20th and 50th minute. Kelly doubled his tally with two frees before providing what appeared at the time to be a crucial score.
With 48 minutes on the clock, Meath worked the ball well from defence to attack and David Regan, who had been pivotal in the build-up played a lovely ball across the Maynooth goalmouth for Kelly to fist to the back of the net. It was a fantastic move from Kevin Reilly's lads which saw them go two points in front of Maynooth for the first time since scoring the opening two scores.
Cathal Barron followed that goal up with a wonderful point, unbalanced and under pressure from a couple of Maynooth defenders. Unfortunately, that turned out to be Meath's last point as Maynooth went on to hit the final five points of which Jennings secured two.
Jennings' free deep into injury time was the nail in the coffin for Reilly's side as they bowed out in round two of their maiden year in the Leinster A Schools championship.
Maynooth Educational Campus - Josh Flood; Sean Miley, Finn Dowling, Oisin O Gilloin; Aaron Larkin, Oran Byrne, Michael Chambers; Aoghan McCauley, Daragh Devine; Aaron Mahoney (1-1), Paul O'Dea (1-1), Kieran Dunne (0-2); Paddy Ryan, Finn Connhealy (0-1), Liam Jennings (1-2, one free). Subs - Harry Egan for McCauley 39m, Sean O'Donnell for Connhealy 44m.
Meath Schools - Jamie O'Reilly; Edward Dunne, Ciaran O'Hare, Aaron McGee; Eoin McCrudden, David Regan, Kyle O'Brien; Harry Healy, Cathal Barron (0-2); Cian Duggan (0-2), Shea McManus, Michael Hoey (0-1); Gearoid O'Malley (0-2, two frees), Evan Kelly (1-4, one 45', two frees), Aidan Roche. Subs - Cormac Maguire for McCrudden 39m, Ciaran Sheridan for Roche 44m, Lewis Cassidy for Duggan 54m, Charlie Murphy for Shea McManus 60m.