Final quarter blitz sees Ardscoil into Harty Cup semi-final

ARDSCOIL RIS booked their place in the Dr Harty Cup semi-final with a 1-22 to 1-17 victory over Our Lady's Secondary School, Templemore at UL's North Campus.

The North Circular Road school needed a final quarter scoring salvo to come out victorious in a game that they were behind in for large periods.

Liam Cronin's side went ahead in the game for the first time in the 49th minute but powered home in the final stages to earn a five-point win.

The teams were level three times in the opening quarter with Mungret St Pauls' Fintan Ftizgerald hitting the target twice for Ardscoil.

However, the game  turned in Templemore's favour on 16 minutes when Ardscoil were unable to deal with a long delivery and corner forward Ciaran O'Shea was on hand to fire into the net.

Templemore held that advantage for the rest of the first half with Jamie Ormond and Paddy Phelan central to their cause. Ardscoil were creating chances, but the Tipperary school's defence was on top.

Fitzgerald continued to keep Ardscoil in touch from placed balls and it was Templemore that went in at the break leading by 1-10 to 0-9.

Two early Ormond frees, in reply to Michael Collins for Ardscoil, stretched Templemore's lead to five in the early stages of the second half.

Ardscoil did have a goal chance in the 37th minute but Daire Neville's scooped effort after excellent play by Marc O'Brien saw the ball drop over the bar.

Neville made no mistake soon after when Ardscoil finally broke free of the Templemore shackles and the Cratloe youngster hit the bottom corner with a powerful effort to leave just one point between the sides.

A Fitzgerald free levelled the game for a fourth time before Ardscoil took control with scores from Collins, O'Brien and an excellent Mikey Gavin long range effort.

It was all Ardscoil from then on with Fitzgerald and Collins, now operating at right half forward, very much to the fore and seeing the North Circular road school into a last four fixture with Cashel CS/

SCORERS: Ardscoil Ris: Fintan Fitzgerald 0-9 (1 pen, 6frees), Michael Collins 0-6, Daire Neville 1-1, Marc O'Brien 0-2,  John O'Keeffe, Shane Gleeson, Diarmuid Stritch and Mikey Gavin 0-1; Our Lady's Templemore: Jamie Ormond 0-7 (5frees), Ciaran O'Shea 1-1, Paddy Phelan 0-4 (4frees), Michael Cahill 0-2, Ned Walsh, James Ryan and Josh McMahon 0-1 each.

ARDSCOIL RIS: Eoin Deegan (Cratloe); John O'Keeffe (Na Piarsaigh), Sean McMahon (Smith O'Briens), Sean Morrissey (Dromin-Athlacca-Banogue); Jamie Moylan (Cratloe), Cian Scully (Dromon-Athlacca Banogue), James Finn (Na Piarsaigh); Michael Gavin (Ballybrown), (Diarmuid Stritch (Clonlara); Shane Gleeson (Adare), Fintan Fitzgerald (Mungret St Pauls),Matthew O'Halloran (Sixmilebridge); Michael Collins (Clonlara), Daire Neville (Cratloe), Marc O'Brien (Cratloe).

SUBS: Eoin Begley (Clonara) for Gleeson (41 mins), Eoin Carey (Cratloe) for O'Halloran (53 mins), Sam Hickey (Adare) for Neville (59 mins), Patrick Kearney (Adare) for Stritch (62 mins).

OUR LADY’S TEMPLEMORE: Michael Ryan (Loughmore-Castleiney), Conor Gleeson (Drom & Inch), Jamie Bergin (JK Brackens), Eoghan Kennedy (Drom & Inch); James Ryan (JK Brackens), Eoin Larkin (Roscrea), Paddy Phelan (Upperchurch), Tom Corcoran (JK Brackens); Ned Walsh (JK Brackens), Jamie Ormond (JK Brackens), Michael Cahill (JK Brackens); Ciaran O'Shea (JK Brackens), Josh McMahon (Roscrea), Dan McAllister (Drom & Inch).

SUBS: Cormac Cahill (Drom & Inch) for M Cahill (43 mins), Cathal Guilfoyle (Moyne-Templetuohy) for McMahon (43 mins), Sean Walsh (JK Brackens) for O'Shea (50).

REFEREE: Eamonn Stapleton (Doon).