Kilbrittain drive on in second half to move into semi-final with Castlemartyr

Kilbrittain 1-16 Tracton 0-8

CASTLEMARTYR will face Kilbrittain in the semi-final of the Co-Op Superstores Lower Intermediate Hurling Championship after the Carbery side’s win over Tracton at Brinny.

Kilbrittain played with the aid of a strong wind in the opening half and a two point advantage did not look good enough but the west Cork side rose to the challenge after the break and were worthy winners at the finish.

Pleasing for the winners was that all their forwards scored from play while Tracton only managed two scores from play over the hour and that was the difference between the sides.

Tracton went ahead inside the opening minute with a pointed free from Ronan Walsh but Kilbrittain dominated the opening quarter leading 0-5 to 0-1 at the first water break with three pointed frees from Maurice Sexton and one each from Morgan Madden and Dec Harrington.

Tracton came more into the game in the second quarter as three pointed frees from Walsh and an excellent point from play by Alan Kiely reduced the margin to one.

Kilbrittain hit ten wides in the opening half and it looked that might cost them dearly as Sexton’s accuracy from placed balls gave them a 0-7 to 0-5 half time lead.

Kilbrittain made a lightening start to the second half with Maurice Sexton playing in Dec Harrington who found the net inside two minutes.

Madden was then fouled minutes later as he bore down on goal and from the resulting penalty Ross Cashman saw his penalty effort come back off the upright.

It was 1-9 to 0-8 at the second water break in favour of Kilbrittain and they rattled off four unanswered points from play by Maurice Sexton, Colm Sheehan and two from Philip Wall to end any hope of a late Tracton revival.

Kilbrittain’s net minder Alan Hayes kept Tracton at bay with some excellent saves.

A Cashman free and two points from Mark Hickey, one a free, completed the scoring.

Scorers: Kilbrittain: M Sexton 0-8 (0-7 f), D Harrington 1-1, P Wall 0-2, M Hickey 0-2 (0-1 f), R Cashman 0-1 f, M Madden, C Sheehan 0-1 each.

Tracton: R Walsh 0-6 f, A Kiely, M Byrne 0-1 each.

KILBRITTAIN: A Hayes; N O’Donovan, J Hurley, I Burke; R Cashman, T Harrington, T Sheehan; P Brennan, C Hickey; M Sexton, C Sheehan, M Hickey; P Wall, D Harrington, M Madden.

Subs: C Moloney for Brennan (ht), D Desmond for Burke (35), S Sexton for Madden (43), S Shorten for D Harrington (55), B Butler for S Sexton (57 inj).

TRACTON: D O’Neill; K Healy, S O’Sullivan, R Sinclair; D Byrne, T McGuinness, C McGuinness; R Walsh, D O’Flaherty; S Kiely, J Good, P O’Riordan; A Kiely, J Kingston, M Griffin.

Subs: M Byrne for Kingston (18), K Webb for S Kiely (40), M O’Sullivan for Griffin (47).

Referee: B Sweeney (Shamrocks).