Soft goals put paid to Oulart
2-4 to 1-0 ahead by the 20th minute. Slowly Oulart-The Ballagh started to match their intensity and the scores began to flow, as Jacob tapped over a couple of dead-balls while Stacey and Shelley Kehoe also hit the target.
When Una Leacy was dragged down, inconsistent referee Karl O’Brien awarded a penalty. The county full-forward drilled her shot down the middle, off Niamh Bolger’s hurl, to the net to tie the game in added time.
Niamh Donnelly added the last point of the half but there was a sense that Oulart-The Ballagh had weathered the most of what Thomastown could throw at them (2-5 to 2-4 to the Kilkenny club at the change-around).
Those suspicions were further enhanced in the first eight minutes of the second-half as the Wexford champions continued to prosper. A Jacob free drew her side level but it was Aoife Dunne’s point that gave Oulart-The Ballagh their first lead.
Despite their superiority at this point, the visitors were struggling to get frees from referee O’Brien. The dragging and pulling on and off the ball was beginning to frustrate the visitors but they did added further scores from Jacob and Shelley Kehoe to move 2-8 to 2-5 clear.
Meanwhile, the flow of the game started to change. Substitutes Joanne Fitzpatrick and Eimear Farrell pointed, and then Anna Farrell levelled the game with a free.
Thomastown added three more minors and led by 2-11 to 2-8 when Oulart-The Ballagh were awarded a penalty for a foul on Ursula Jacob in the 59th minute.
Leacy stepped up to it again but her shot was saved by Bolger. Farrell scored her fourth point in the second minute of added time to increase the lead to four.
Jacob popped over a free but Oulart-The Ballagh couldn’t find the goal to force extra-time, meaning Thomastown advanced to the Leinster final against St. Vincent’s of Dublin which will be played in Parnell Park on November 13.