SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2011

St. Mary's Naas  (2)   V’s  (1)   Scoil Chríost Rí Portlaoise                       
St. Mary's U17 team started their campaign with a very tough Junior ‘A’ cup game against Portlaoise. With home advantage the St. Mary's girls came out of the blocks first and threatened the goal several times with Shannon Doheny and Chelsea Crowe causing problems down the wings and lone striker Orlaith White testing the keeper on no fewer than 3 occasions.
                Whenever the opposition did threaten they found a very strong St. Mary's defence marshalled by Áine Cummins and helped by Marie Clarke, Meabh O' Brien and captain Amy Gallagher. Ciara Lacey and Aoibheann woods were pulling the strings in midfield with Ciara setting up the play with possession being won by both Aoibheann and Briona Hoban in the middle. This enabled St. Mary's to dominate the play for the entire first half. With the score set to be 0-0 at the break a St. Mary's attack saw the ball crossed into the box only for the eventual shot to be blocked and the referee had no choicebut to point to the spot. Shannon Doheny made no mistake giving St. Mary's a 1-0 lead.

The second half started the same with Amie Creaton in the St. Mary's goal mopping up any danger and with excellent kick outs setting up attack after attack. As the half went on Portlaoise began to threaten more and on two occasions they broke through on counter attacks. However the very quick Meabh O' Brien spotted the danger and made an incredible block during one attack as the attacker was set to roll the ball into the open goal. With 10 minutes remaining Portlaoise won a free kick on the edge of the box and although Amie Creaton got a hand to the powerful shot it somehow crossed the line.
This spurred St. Mary's on to get the winner and they did just that in style. The introduction of Ciara Brown and Hayley Nolan gave them something different up front and they had Portlaoise pinned in for the remainder of the game. With 1 minute remaining Ciara Lacey got the ball on the edge of the box, turned and curled a super shot to the top corner.
St. Mary's held out to win 2-1 to meet Eureka Kells in the last 16. There were some exceptional performances on the day from Amie Creaton, Áine Cummins, Amy Gallagher, Aoibheann Woods and the outstanding performer was certainly Meabh O' Brien at right back. Well done Meabh and the rest of the girls.

Eureka Kells  (3)  V’s St. Marys Naas  (2)      Fri 2nd December
St. Mary's travelled to  favourites Eureka Kells in the last 16 of the Junior ‘A’ cup. The day didn’t really favour football with freezing temperatures and lashing rain. However the girls got stuck in from the start and can consider themselves extremely unlucky not to leave with anything. In the first half St. Mary's had the better of the chances with both Orlaith White and Ciara Brown being played through by Hayley Nolan who was pulling all the strings. However Orlaith shot weakly at the keeper and Ciara blazed wide. Aoibheann woods was having the game of her life in the middle of the park, making the most of the conditions to win tackle after tackle for her team.

Into the second half Aoibheann collected the ball on the right wing, beat two players and played an inch perfect cross to Orlaith White who finished to the net. However Eureka answered back within a few minutes with a shot from the edge of the box with some slack marking being the cause  from St. Mary's. However St. Mary's were back in front with 10 mins  remaining when Ciara Brown played in Hayley Nolan who calmly slotted the ball home. With 5 mins remaining a corner from Eureka dropped to a player on the front post who finished to  level the game. St. Mary's went in search of the winner and a run from substitute Shauna Weldon saw her cross for Orlaith White and her deflected shot looped over the keeper and went agonisingly wide. In the last minute a run from Eurekes striker saw her benefit from a slip at the back and her shot was deflected to the net to win the tie for Eureka.

This was certainly a disappointment for the girls but they should be extremely proud of a fantastic performance especially as they were without regulars Shannon Doheny and Chelsea Crowe. In what were terrible conditions, the undisputed player of the match was Aoibheann Woods (also commented on by the opposition and referee) with Briona Hoban, Meabh O'Brien, Hayley Nolan, Saoirse Ferguson and Orlaith White also impressing.

Alexandra College  (5)  V’s  (0)  St. Marys Naas   17th Nov
In the senior ‘A’ cup the seniors had a lot to live up to having reached the semi finals last year. However on a bad day for the senior team, with lots of injuries and players absent etc. they met a very strong Alexandra College side. With all four goalkeepers in the school injured Orlaith White stepped up to play in goal and made some excellent saves in the first half. Although the girls were 4 down at the break they battled hard and captain Grace Clifford rattled the bar from 30 yds with a free kick. In the 2nd half they continued to try and contain the skilful opposition. The player of the match was Leanne Campbell who battled hard throughout the game supported by Grace Clifford, Orlaith White, Shannon Doheny and Amy Drewitt.

St. Marys Naas  (6)  V’s   (1)  St. Wolstans Celbridge
St. Mary's have entered a first year team in the Leinster League for the first time this year and they have certainly already made a statement of intent with an emphatic win over their Celbridge opposition. The game was over as a contest after 15 minutes with goals by Alice Linehan (2) and Kelly Perkins. The defence of Niamh Kinahan, Hannah Heveran, Gráinne Bell  and Meabh Ni Raghallaigh made it difficult for the opposition and when they did get through they found keeper Katelyn Dowd in top form. In the 2nd half Kelly scored again along with Isobel Connors and Alice rounded things off by running from her own half, beating 4 players and rolling the ball home for her hat-trick. Kelly was named player of the match, ably assisted by Alice, Niamh, Hannah and Catherine McDermott. This victory just shows that the future of soccer in St. Mary's is certainly looking good