On Tuesday the 22nd of September, Monaghan Coaching & Games organised the now annual Senior Boys 7-aside blitz in Cloghan.
The weather was perfect on the evening which is something of a rarity for Cloghan!
The rules for the blitz are slightly different to what the teams are used to with a different scoring system in operation. All goals and points where worth 1 point but any point that was scored outside the 30m scoring zone was worth 3 points. This rule is to encourage long range shooting and there was some terrific efforts last night, which was great to see.
On the night, 8 schools entered a team (Beech Hill, Colaiste Oiriall, Ballybay Community College, Largy College, Castleblayney College, Patrician High School, Our Lady’s Castleblayney and St Macartan’s College (2 teams). Teams where split into 2 groups (one group of 5 and one group of 4). The format of the blitz was a round robin format with each team in a group playing each other once, with the top team in each group going through to play in the final. Group A went down to the wire with 3 teams (Patrician, Largy & St Macartans 2) still in contention to go through to the final before the final group game. In the end Patrician High School got over the line but they were pushed hard by Largy College who can consider themselves unlucky not to make the final having lost out on a place by 1 point. Group B was more straight-forward with St Macartan’s 1 winning all their group games to make it through.
In the final, Patrician High School ran out comfortable winners in the end. Credit to Patrician High School who showed a very good skill level throughout the tournament. We would just like to take this opportunity to wish all the schools the very best of luck in their competitions this year and hopefully they can continue to progress and represent the county well over the course of the school year.
Finally we would just like to thank the four referees on the night, Xavier Coyle, Barry Grimley, Ciaran Mulligan and Aaron Gallagher. Your time is very much appreciated.
The next school blitz will take place on Wednesday the 18th November for 1st and 2nd year boys. We will be in touch with the schools closer to time.
