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With their centre-half-forward Rob Hickey in fine scoring form, Moate Community School proved much too strong for St Benildus in Rosemount, Co Westmeath.
Moate always looked the better outfit, but still only led by two points at the break (0-8 to 1-3), the Dublin school having found the net in the 21st minute via Kevin Nolan, who was denied a second goal shortly afterwards by a wonderful save (at the expense of a point) by Darren O'Connell.
St Benildus remained in contention until Theo Watts struck for a splendid goal for Moate in the 48th minute.
In the closing moments, Sean Bedford failed to convert a penalty for the metropolitans and a Moate counterattack yielded a fine goal from the outstanding Hickey.
Scorers – Moate CS: R Hickey 1-5, T Watts 1-0, A Farrell 0-3 (1f), J Corbally and A McCormack (2f) 0-2 each, S Moran 0-1. St. Benildus: K Nolan 1-1, S Bedford 0-2 (2f), E Coffey and D Coen 0-1 each.
Moate CS – D O'Connell; D Carroll, S Bracken, P Henson; J Keenan, R Gorman, J Pettit; S Doyle, R Cunningham; A McCormack, R Hickey, S Moran; J Corbally, T Watts, A Farrell. Subs: B Sayeh for Henson (h/t), G Murray for Pettit (41), S Woods for Farrell (57).
St Benildus – D Rafferty; E Murphy, M Mitchell, G Fallon; B McGeary, A Kennedy, S Smith; C Lyndon, E Coffey; L Naughton, S Bedford, D Coen; K Nolan, E Allen, C O'Connor. Subs: K Noonan for O'Connor (38), R Costello for Naughton (48).
Ref – B Gavin (Offaly).
