St Brigid’s of Loughrea has become the first school to win both senior and junior vocational hurling titles in the same season.
The County Galway school secured the senior title when edging out Roscrea by 4- 14 to 4 - 12 at Semple Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Played at a high tempo, Loughrea’s young corner forward, Brian Molloy, led the scoring with 2 - 5 to deny this season’s favourites for a second time in three years.
Roscrea leapt into a 0-5 to 0-0 lead before Stephen Cahalan goaled and Molloy added points. Three more goals followed, giving Roscrea a 2-9 to 2-6 lead at the break. However Loughrea took control after the restart with Michael Hannon and Molloy posting goals and, with 10 minutes left, the Galway school led by 4-11 to 2-12.
Roscrea, however, hit back with two more goals - the second three minutes from time to reduce the deficit to one, but Molloy fired over an insurance point in injury-time to ensure Loughrea took the honours.
St Brigid’s Loughrea: G Kelly (St Thomas ); E Burke (do. ), C Kennedy (Mullagh ), D O’Donoghue (Kilnadeema-Leitrim ); P Kennedy (Mullagh ), M Hannon (Kilconieron ), G Moylan (St Thomas ); T Spellman (Sarsfields ), D Burke (St Thomas ); D Dolan (Cappataggle ), S Sweeney (Loughrea ), T Mitchell (St Thomas ); J Ryan (Loughrea ), B Molloy (Kilnadeema-Leitrim ), S Cahalan (Mullagh ). Subs: B Dolan (Craughwell ) for Hannon (48 ), N Haverty (Kilnadeema-Leitrim ) for Mitchell (53 ).
