St. Michael’s College 1-12 Naas CBS 1-11

St. Michael’s College are All-Ireland Colleges champions after winning the Hogan Cup for the first time in their history after a dramatic final in Croke Park today.

St. Michael’s prevailed by a single point 1-12 to 1-11 having led from midway through the first when a Darragh McBrien goal fired them into a 1-03 to 1-02 lead.

St. Michael’s never relinquished the lead thereafter and led by 1-06 to 1-04 at the break with Micheal Glynn’s accuracy from dead balls and points from Josh largo Ellis and a fine effort from Pol McKervey complementing perfectly McBrien’s neatly finished goal after captain Brandon Horan had fetched a great ball in midfield.

St. Michael’s started the second half well and two fine points from Glynn stretched the lead to 1-08 to 1-04 before Eoin Conneff pulled a point back for Naas.

Darragh restored the four point advantage from play before Naas pulled it back to two points with scores from the excellent Paddy McDermott and Mikey McGovern at 1-09 to 1-07.

A Glynn free and a point from the left boot of the excellent Conor Love again restored the four point lead with 10 minutes to go.

Naas were not finished with and did kick a few wides before Eoin Archbold pointed to make it 1-11 to 1-08 with two minutes remaining.

A Tony O’Connor fisted point brought the gap back to two points but Love looked to have sealed the win when he made it 1-12 to 1-08 into six minutes of injury time.

It was a nervy finish though as McDermott and McGovern pointed for Nass but time run out and the final whistle sounded huge celebrations as St. Michael’s landed a first ever Hogan Cup win and a rare All-Ireland title for the county.