Summerhill 0-22 Ratoath 1-13 (AET)
The hurt is finally over for Summerhill who braved an extra-time epic at Navan's Pairc Tailteann to regain the Keegan Cup as Meath SFC champions.
Beaten narrowly by Ratoath in last year's final, and runners up on four occasions since previously claiming the title in 2013, Conor Gillespie's men dug so deep to land the club's eighth crown.
The sides were level eight times in normal time, prompting the extra 20 minutes or so and Summerhill surprisingly dominated the additional two halves, adding on seven extra-time points to just one from a fatigued Ratoath.
The 2022 winners had previously come back from six points down to defeat Dunshaughlin in the quarter-finals and got through their semi-final against Wolfe Tones despite failing to score in the entire second-half.
It looked as if they may pull off another great escape to make it back to back title successes when Daithi McGowan sent the game to extra time with a 66th minute equaliser.
But they only added one more point after that as Summerhill overcame all those years of hurt with that terrific extra-time display.
Man of the Match Eoghan Frayne was among the scorers in extra-time and finished with 0-06 for Summerhill while Barry Dardis helped himself to 0-05. Boss Gillespie will be delighted too that his defence held Ratoath to a relatively meagre 1-13 while Summerhil had 10 different scorers in total.
Aside from the glory of a first title in a decade, Summerhill will advance to the Leinster club SFC and they will travel to face Tullamore of Offaly in Round 1 on October 21/22.
Defeated Ratoath were initially boosted by the availability of former Meath attacker Joey Wallace for his first start of 2023.
The speedy full-forward came on in the semi-final defeat of Wolfe Tones following his recovery from a cruciate knee ligament injury.
Wallace memorably played for a portion of last year's final win over Summerhill whilst waiting on surgery having suffered the injury weeks earlier.
He had an immediate impact on this encounter with the angled delivery in the fourth minute which led to a Bryan McMahon goal for Ratoath, a fisted finish after the former Meath forward rose up above Ronan Ryan and goalkeeper Sean Muddiman.
Wallace won a free that Daithi McGowan later converted also though it was Summerhill that fought back to take a narrow 0-10 to 1-06 half-time lead.
Ratoath led by 1-01 to 0-00 after that early McMahon goal but Summerill wiped out the deficit by the 13th minute following points from Eoghan Frayne, Dardis and David Larkin.
In perfect conditions, Summerhill picked off a series of terrific scores from distance with rising county star Frayne and Dardis splitting seven points between them in the first-half alone.
Eamon Wallace, Joey's big brother and also a former Meath forward, operates in the half-back line for Ratoath and burst through for a timely first-half point.
It was an open and enjoyable decider with a series of intriguing match-ups for the estimated crowd of around 3,000 to pore over.
Dardis was initially tracked by former Meath full-back Conor McGill whilst Ratoath's Jack Flynn, the star of Meath's Tailteann Cup final victory, went head to head with Summerhill's powerful midfielder Adam Flanagan.
Joey Wallace was picked up by Summerhill corner-back Iarla Hughes until the defender's exit midway through the second-half.
Ratoath restarted brightly and controlled the third quarter, outscoring Summerhill by 0-04 to 0-01 in the 15 or so minutes after the break.
Joey Wallace opened his own account with an eye-catching score off his left foot following a probing run from right to left across the 13-metre line.
There were points too from Donegal man Ciaran O Fearraigh, Cian O'Brien and McMahon as Ratoath took a two-point 1-10 to 0-11 lead into the final quarter.
They couldn't close it out though and Summerhill fought back to level terms on three occasions late on, Lavelle putting the underdogs one up in the 65th minute before McGowan drilled the equaliser for a free with just three seconds of stoppage time remaining.
Summerhill were dominant in the opening half of extra-time with points from Dardis, Eoghan Frayne and Conor Lyons and only one in response from Ratoath's Flynn.
And Summerhill duly finished the job with four more points in the second-half, allowing their supporters to finally savour a victory that was a decade in the making.
Summerhill: Sean Muddiman; Iarla Hughes, Ronan Ryan, John Lavelle (0-01); Adam McDonnell (0-01), Ross Ryan, Padhraig Geraghty; Adam Flanagan, John Keane; David Larkin (0-02), Diarmuid McCabe (0-01), Kevin Ryan; Conor Frayne (0-02), Eoghan Frayne (0-06, 0-03f), Barry Dardis (0-05, 0-02m, 0-01f).
Subs: Micheal Byrne for Keane 17, Conor Lyons (0-02) for Kevin Ryan 40, Padraig Jennings (0-01) for Hughes 43, Jamie O'Shea for McDonnell 45, Davy Dalton (0-01) for McCabe 56, Eamon McDonnell for Dardis 60-62, blood, McDonnell for Conor Frayne 68. Ben Moran for Geraghty h/t e/t, Sean Dalton for Eoghan Frayne 72.
Ratoath: Shane Duffy; Conor McGill, Ben Wyer, Ciaran O Fearraigh (0-01); Andrew Gerrard, Gavin McGowan, Eamon Wallace (0-01); Jack Flynn (0-02), Ben McGowan; Keith McCabe, Daithi McGowan (0-04, 0-03f), Cian O'Brien (0-02); Cian Rogers (0-01), Bryan McMahon (1-01), Joey Wallace (0-01).
Subs: Bobby O'Brien for McCabe 48, Brian Daly for Gerrard 49, Padraig Byrne for Ben McGowan 53, Conor Rooney for O'Brien 62. Cian O'Farrell for Duffy e/t, Liam Kelly for Gavin McGowan 66, Tom Fadden for Joey Wallace 69, Ronan Byrne for McMahon 69.
Referee: David Coldrick.
