Dromtariffe get the measure of St. Mary’s

to a semi final clash against Cloughdubh.

From an early stage, the Balineen and Enniskeane outfit had hit pole position on jumping ahead thanks to a well struck goal from Ciaran Everard. Steadily Dromtariffe got moving on points to Stephen Ahern, Seán Howard and Mark O’Connor.

And their cause was boosted from a delivery by Daniel O’Keeffe found Howard to net. Still St. Mary’s were determined to take the game to their opponents, prompted by the solid play of Peter Daly, Michael O’Driscoll, Billy O’Brien and Everard.

Points to Gary Twomey, Niall Kelleher and Everard narrowed the arrears to trail 1-8 to 1-4 at the break. However Dromtariffe resumed in a positive mode, their dominance based on the vigilant play of Mikey O’Gorman, Kevin Cremin and Neil Galvin in defence, Mark O’Connor and O’Keeffe thrived at midfield with Jack Murphy and Howard ever penetrating going forward.

Points to Seán O’Callaghan, O’Connor and Howard allowed Dromtariffe stretch their handle on the proceedings. St. Mary’s sparked a comeback with Ciarán and Brian Everard on target to pare back the deficit 1-13 to 1-8.

Still Dromtariffe’s response was calm and measured, a free by ‘keeper Dermot Cremin allowed Mark O’Connor collect and place Murphy to find the net. To their credit, St. Mary’s never threw in the towel, midfielder Ciarán Everard splitting the uprights with a trio of points.

But hard though as the Carbery representatives battled to save the day, they just couldn’t come up with the required response. Indeed, Dromtariffe finished at a gallop and sealed the destination of the spoils on late points to Murphy and Howard to book a passage to the penultimate hurdle.