St. Marys Edenderry Junior Boys football team have reached the school's first ever Leinster A final on Tuesday the 23rd of February. The team played St. Aidan's of Dublin in the semi-final on a beautiful day for football in Dunganny. In a thrilling game both teams went all out for the win from the very start. Both team teams traded early points with St. Marys landing the first big blow of the game with a goal from Conor McCarthy. This goal seemed to spring St. Aidan's into life and their attack kicked into gear with two goals in quick succession which seemed to upset St. Marys. However to their credit the team from Edenderry responded brilliantly and scored their second goal through the boot of Daniel Mills, the scorer of a fantastic goal in South Leinster Final. Edenderry went from being 3 points down at one stage in the half to going in 5 points up on a score line of 2.8 to 2.3. Along with the goals there were some fine points kicked by Ger Cunningham, Gary Farrell, Conor McCarthy, Cian Farrell and Daniel Mills.
The second half came at the wrong time for Edenderry who were well on top before the whistle, however upon the resumption of the game St. Aidan's took over the game and began to dominate the game especially around midfield. St. Marys were on the back foot for the next 15 minutes with their lead getting clawed back bit by bit with St. Aidan's taking their points. Crucially Edenderry did not concede a goal in this period due to some great defending and turnovers from their defence. However this did not stop St. Aidan's taking the lead again with 10 minutes to go. This seemed to spring Edenderry to life with Cian Farrell getting a lot more ball he managed to score Edenderry's 3rd goal and they never looked back. The momentum totally swung and Edenderry totally controlled the game from here out with Conor McCarthy picking up his second goal and a super point from Mark Grehan sealed the victory for St. Marys winning on a score line of 4.11 to 2.10. The score line does not do justice to how close this game was and the physical intensity at which it was played. Many players were to the fore for Edenderry with James Carey again having a wonderful game. Aaron O Neill controlled his defence well and was a presence throughout. The strength in-depth of this squad must be applauded also with Dean Cummins coming on for the injured Ciaran Holton at full back, Jack Smyth getting on for the last 10 minutes to add impetuous to the forwards and Sean Coffey deputising for the injured Ollie Gill. The team will play St. Patricks Classical School of Navan in the Final on Friday the 4th of March with the venue to be confirmed soon.