The victorious Mount Sion team celebrate their win after the presentation.
St. Mary’s BNS Ferrybank – 0
A fast moving and extremely slick Mount Sion team were crowned the Jack Kennedy Memorial Cup champions in Ozier Park on Thursday last.
Both schools had massive support and the atmosphere was electric for this eagerly awaited encounter.
There was an amazing start to the game because Mount Sion struck the woodwork on no less than four occasions during the course of the opening ten minutes.
Raham Kareem rattled the crossbar after five minutes and one minute later David Adebayo did likewise.
David Akintomede then struck the bottom of an upright five minutes later and when the ball came back to Raham Kareem he cracked the ball off the opposite upright.
The St Mary’s goalkeeper Maciek Tomczuk produced a stunning save from David Akintomede on 21 minutes but one minute later he could do nothing to keep out a powerful header from David Adebayo who rose high to meet a cross from Nils Hlukaku.
The Ferrybank team were dreadfully unlucky not to get back on level terms two minutes later. Stephen Imiren sent in a thunderous strike from 25 yards. The ball struck the underside of the Mount Sion crossbar but play was waved on although many present felt the ball may have crossed the line.
In fairness it was an impossible call for the referee such was the power of the shot. St Mary’s went close again after 27 minutes when Victor Maduewsi crossed from the right to Jack Keogh-Moran but the latter just failed to control the ball in front of the Mount Sion goal.
The victors hit Ferrybank with a killer blow one minute into first half stoppage time when Raham Kareem ran on to a long ball from Timi Sobauade before placing the ball past the advancing Maciek Tomczuk.
Mount Sion were put under pressure during the early stages of the second period and Jack Byrne did remarkably well to keep out a super effort from Stephen Imiren on 42 minutes. However Raham Kareem scored the goal of the game in the 47th minute when he raced 25 yards with the ball before dinking it over the head of Maciek Tomczuk from 15 yards range.
Bode Ajayi completed the scoring on 55 minutes with an angled strike from the left side of the penalty area.
Raham Kareem was named “Man of the Match” for his wonderful display and Ray Malone presented him with his trophy.
John Kindlon presented the Jack Kennedy Cup to the victorious Mout Sion team. Michael Walsh, the Mount Sion Principal expressed his delight after the game. “This is yet another great day for the school. We won this trophy in 2010 so it’s wonderful to have it back again. Brian Wall is the team coach and he has done a superb job. We had a lot of the players who won the All-Ireland Under 12 Cup final for Waterford this year so we were confident we could win here today but in fairness Ferrybank made us work hard at times”.
MOUNT SION: Jack Byrne, Bode Ajayi, Tadgh McCarthy, P.G Fanning, David Ogundele, Timi Sobauade, Raphael Akintunde, Nils Hlukaku, Raham Kareem, David Adebayo, David Akintomede, Conor Freeman, Cabdi Xussen, Sharif Alabi, Brian Murphy, Ogosa Osarieme.
ST MARY’S BNS FERRYBANK: Maciek Tomczuk, Jakub Jukowski, Charlie Atkins, Ben Fitzpatrick, John Collins, Jack Keogh-Moran, Victor Maduewsi, Cody Grif fin, Paul Hodanu, Mark Imiren, Stephen Imiren, Glen Power, James O’Meara, Jake Brophy.
REFEREE: Marky Lucas.
