Colm Basquel in action for Ballyboden St Enda’s at the weekend
Boden march into Leinster semis
BALLYBODEN St Enda’s kicked off their provincial campaign with a win as they now move to the semi finals of the Leinster Club Football Championship.
Boden defeated Wexford Champions Castletown-Liam Mellows by nine points at Chadwicks Wexford Park on Sunday afternoon.
The game was a slow starter with Boden taking 10 minutes to get a score on the board before Daire Sweeneny managed to open his side’s account.
Albeit playing into the breeze as well as against a very well organised defence, Boden went another several minutes without getting a score, this time Ross McGarry putting one over the bar, the first point from play the side managed.
While Castletown had brought themselves into a three point lead at the 20 minute mark, Boden would bring it back to level terms just minutes later scoring the opening goal of the game.
A successful counter attack was orchestrated by Brian Bobbett and Ryan Basquel with the latter releasing the ball to his brother Colm in the box who expertly rifled home a shot into the roof of the net.
Ballybodem St Enda’s overcame Wexford Champions Castletown-Liam Mellows by nine points Photos by John Kirwan
The game would continue to be fairly neck and neck however with Castletown keeper Darragh Brooks converting a trio of two pointed frees throughout the first half of the game. The two sides would enter halftime on level terms with a 0-7 to 1-4 scoreline.
The second half would see a totally different match occur however. From the get go Boden were free scoring with McGarry and Colm Basquel getting three points between them in the opening three minutes, already nearly matching their entire score tally from the first half.
Ryan O’Dwyer and Colm Basquel would add to the tally with Castletown being left to feed off the scraps.
Ryan Basquel would also continue to fire over the bar with the contest effectively being put to bed in the 42nd minute following a goal from Alex Gavin.
With Cein Darcy controlling the midfield Boden would stop attacking so relentlessly throughout the final quarter but would still kick over more scores through McGarry, Sweeney and Callum O’Dwyer to secure a 2-16 to 0-13 victory.
Manager Eamon O’Reilly spoke after the game.
“Any team has to earn their crust in this competition. Look at Tullamore, they’re three-time Offaly champions, they’ve got real pedigree, they know they have a chance of winning a Leinster title based on where they’re coming from.
“Whereas this is our first time out of Dublin since 2019. But we have a focused group and we think we can go into the match the next day and hopefully get a performance out of ourselves.”
