BALLYBODEN St Enda’s enjoyed yet another famous Feile weekend as their Under-14 footballers retained the Dublin division one title in Parnell Park last Sunday following a superb weekend of action.
It saw them defend the first of the two county titles they won last year having claimed both the football and hurling crowns a year ago as they got the better of Whitehall Colmcilles 0-9 to 0-7 in the final.
Five points by John McGinn were complemented by scores from Luke Grady, Adam Carrigan, Conor Woods and Enda Cashman.
Captain Kevin Desmond led the team up the steps to lift the trophy for the second year in a row for the Boden boys.
Drawn in an initially tough group with Na Fianna, Whitehall and St Vincent’s, they managed to make it through unscathed.
Starting against Na Fianna, nerves were settled quickly with two well-taken goals from Conor Woods to put Boden into an early lead. John McGinn added a further three points and Mark Walsh added a point to extend the lead to make it 2-4 to 0-1 at half-time and they eventually ran out 3-8 to 1-3 winners thanks to a Jack Lambert goal.
After that good start, Boden played fellow eventual finalists Whitehall. Again, the Firhouse Road club started well with a goal from John McGinn only for the northside club to bounce back and take the lead.
But, as half time approached, Conor Woods got his third goal of the day, John McGinn and Luke McDwyer got points and Enda Cashman scored a great goal to give Boden a 3-4 to 1-3 lead at the break.
In a tighter second half, Ballyboden had a goal disallowed for a square ball and Whitehall scored three points in a row to narrow the deficit. The nerves were high but two great points from McGinn followed by another from Cashman extended Ballyboden’s lead and McGinn got another point to make the game safe.
And their place in the semi-finals were secured when St Vincent’s were beaten 0-7 to 0-4 in a cagey tie.
It put them through to a semi-final date with Castleknock and they duly prevailed at Pairc Ui Mhurchu 3-10 to 1-6.
It set up the rematch with Whitehall and proved a big battle. They made the early running with scores from Jordan Leonard and Ciaran Murphy before Carrigan split that lead in half.
Boden subsequently took the initiative leading up to half-time with McGinn swapping the lead while Grady helped build the lead to 0-4 to 0-2.
Whitehall got a point back before the break but further McGinn scores eked out a narrow lead that they retained through the second half.
