On Tuesday, 24th of January, our U-13 girls, U-13 boys and U-13 mixed teams took part in the Olympic Handball Dublin finals in the ALSAA. Our girls were against two teams from Loreto, Dalkey and St. Attracta’s NS. Our mixed team were in a very tricky draw with Oatlands College 2, Rush and St. Attracta's, Dundrum. Our boys were in the slightly easier side of the draw with Oatlands College 1, St. Damian's and Kilcoskan NS. The top side from each groups would progress to the finals.
Our girls started off very strongly and only lost narrowly to Loreto 2. In their second match against Loreto 3, they were far more impressive and won convincingly. Their last match proved to be the toughest with St. Attracta’s winning out in the end.
Our mixed team has a very difficult starting match against Rush boys. We witnessed a much improved second half from our mixed team with the team losing out to a very strong Rush team. Oatlands 2 also proved a formidable opposition as they powered to victory.
Our last match provided us with an opportunity to show how much we had improved. Having trailed 4-1 to St. Attracta’s NS during the second half, our players took the game by the scruff of the neck and with some powerful forward play, miraculously went ahead 5-4 with a few minutes to play. St. Attracta’s scored a last minute equaliser to draw the match 5-5. It certainly one of the best matches of the day and a magnificent comeback form the boys and girls of St. Peter’s.
The boys knew the pressure was on to start off strongly and they did just that with a convincing win against St. Damian’s. The boys could have finished with more goals but for the exceptional goalkeeping from the St. Damian’s keeper.
A positive result against Oatlands would continue the momentum but unfortunately, they couldn’t find the decisive winning goal and the game finished a draw (2-2).
We headed into the final match with Kilcoskan in second place knowing a win would send us through to the final. kilcoskan proved too strong on the day and although our boys were level at half time, Kilcoskan pulled away in the second half to win and secure a place in the final.
Overall, our boys finished in second place behind Kilcoskan while our girls and mixed teams both finished in 3rd place. Many thanks to the boys and girls for representing their school so well and their coaches Ms. Mulcahy (in Term 1), Ms. McKenna and Ms. McGrath as well as Ms. Carroll (our Handball co-ordinator)
We look forward to a friendly tournament in Kildare before the Easter holidays.
