Kerry quintet reach Corn Uí Mhuirí quarter-finals

FIVE Kerry schools will go into the hat for tomorrow’s Corn Uí Mhuirí quarter-final draw as defending champions St Brendans College, Killarney and Tralee CBS ended up topping their groups after the final round of group games last Wednesday afternoon.

While the former were already assured of their place in the quarter-finals, the latter needed a result against Colaiste Choilm of Ballincollig in Rathmore to ensure their place in the last eight.

That they did with a strong start the key to an eventual nine point win for The Green. They scored 1-3 without reply in the first six minutes as Mikey Kelliher registered the green flag for the Tralee School.

All-Ireland winning Kerry Minors Kieran Dwyer and Tomás O’Connor impressed in their win as Tommy Lynch, Joe O’Connor, Brandon Patterson and Jack Myers were others to catch the eye in a 1-9 to 0-4 win.

Their lead at half-time had been 1-6 to 0-3 further emphasising their dominance on the day as a Sean Warren free proved to be Ballincollig’s only score of the second-half.

Although Colaiste Na Sceilge were out of the permutations for making the knock-out stages, they managed to do Tralee a favour in putting up a spirited display in losing by 1-12 to 2-8 (Luke O’Shea and John Murphy their goalscorers) to St Francis College Rochestown at Lewis Road as it meant that The Green were able to go through as Group winners by virtue of a better points difference.

1-12 to 2-8 was always the scoreline in another game involving a Kerry school, but it was to a Kerry side’s favour on this occasion as Intermediate School Killorglin finished strong to not only beat De La Salle Macroom but also finish ahead of them in the table and take second place in Group C.

Ian McGuillicuddy got the goal that proved to be the difference between the two sides with six minutes left as the Mid Kerry school appeared to be in trouble when Ethan O’Gorman scored the game’s first goal three minutes earlier to put Macroom 1-7 to 0-9 in front.

Intermediate School had led by 0-4 to 0-3 at half-time but survived a goal chance for their opponents seven minutes after the restart as Cian O’Shea put over two impressive points to give Killorglin control again.

When full-back Kevin Kelleher was black carded for Macroom it looked to be going well for Killorglin, but O’Gorman’s goal had them on the backfoot approaching the closing minutes.

Daire Cleary nearly responded instantly to that setback but McGuillicuddy was the one to fire into the net and send Killorglin into the last eight with a second Macroom goal for Liam Twohig proving to be only a consolation strike at the finish.

Defending champions St Brendans College made sure of top spot in the same group with a 22 point victory over Hamilton High School of Bandon to finish the Group Stages with a 100% record, Colaiste Chriost Rí of Cork the only team achieve such a feat in this campaign.

Mark Harnett and Donnachadh O’Sullivan scored the goals for The Sem in a 2-24 to 0-8 victory. With Pobalscoil Corcha Dhuibhne already having been assured of their place in the quarter-final draw prior to last Wednesday, Mercy Mounthawk Tralee became the fifth Kerry side to make it through and qualify for the knock-out stages for the first time since the school first entered the grade three campaigns ago with a comprehensive 3-16 to 0-8 win over Clonakilty Community College.

Leading by 3-9 to 0-1 at halftime, Mounthawk continued in the same vein in the second half with Eoin McElligott scoring two of their goals and Dara Devine, Bobby O’Regan and Kieran O’Reilly contributing to a 17-point success and a first time ever appearance in the quarter-finals.

Tomorrow (Thursday) night’s quarter-final draw (due to take place at 8pm) guarantees one all Kerry clash with The Sem and The Green avoiding each other as group winners while teams that played each other in the group stages can’t meet again in this round. The semi-final pairings will be determined by the order in which the matches are drawn out.

The quarter-finals will take place on Wednesday, January 18.