Cornafean 2-18
Kill Shamrocks 1-4

An impressive Cornafean outfit had minimal fuss as they crushed Kill Shamrocks tonight to move into the junior football championship final.

In the soaking conditions at Kingspan Breffni Park, Laurence Brady's men were in control from start to finish in this one-sided semi-final, running up an 11-point lead off the back of a dominant first-half display and completely killing off the Shamrocks with goals from Cormac Geoghegan and Barry Doyle in the second-half.

Geoghegan's major may have come under fortuitous circumstances, but it damaged the 2013 champions all the same after they'd threatened to forge a way back into the game with a well-worked goal of their own from Damien O'Brien early in the second-half.

That was about as good as it got for Barry Crudden's charges however, as Cornafean's razor sharp forwards outscored them by 1-5 to 0-1 in the closing quarter, setting up a final showdown with either Templeport or Mountnugent on September 27th.

The Reds registered 0-5 before Kill's first legitimate attacked earned a free for marksman Sean Gaffney to convert on 17 minutes.

At the other end, full-forward Liam Duignan, Jack Wharton (free), Barry Doye (2) and Andrew Wharton were already heated up for the would-be winners, raising consecutive white flags. They'd move into double figures by the 22nd minute via Cathal Sheridan, the aforementioned Duignan (2), Pauric Tully and the superb Ciaran Duignan all finding their range and there'd be no let up until the break.

Jack Wharton's second free of the night opened up a 10-point gap, as Kill looked to be completely buried. Half-time couldn't come quick enough for the trailers, as they were being beaten all over the rain-soaked pitch, and more Cornafean scores from Tully and Andrew Wharton underlined that before Conor McCaffrey landed the first from play at the other end on the eve of half-time.

The 0-13 to 0-2 scoreboard made for bleak reading for the Shamrocks' contingent during the interval, but they had something to cheer about in early stages of the resumption as O'Brien hit the net for them in fine style. A great ball from Aaron McIntyre released Conor McCaffrey into acres of space and the nippy wing forward crossed to O'Brien with his fist and Kill's number 13 looped the ball over Cornafean 'keeper Andrew Smith perfectly.

The goal reduced the deficit to seven, after Niall McCaffrey pointed from the throw-in, but disaster hit McRudden's men within four minutes of O'Brien's strike, as an ambitious effort from Geoghegan along the left flank somehow slipped through the hands of Killian Brady and into the Kill net.

Six minutes later, Doyle had the ball back in their after some good build-up play from Liam Duignan and Tully afforded the centre-forward the time and space to net the ball low past Brady, who rushed to smother his shot.

Kill's campaign was done and dusted once that one hit the net as the Reds could afford to take their foot off the gas a little and empty their bench in the last quarter, with one eye on Sunday fortnight's showpiece.

Veteran Pearse McKenna notched Kill's last score, but there was still time for Liam Duignan, Jack Wharton (free) and Tully (free) to bump up their personal tallies before sub Killian O'Reilly round off the 17-point thrashing.

Cornafean: Andrew Smith; Paul Brady, Mark Johnson, Dan Wharton; James Cullen, Ciaran Duignan (0-1), Jason Miney; Cormac Geoghegan (1-0), Cathal Sheridan (0-1); Andrew Wharton (0-2), Barry Doyle (1-3, 1f), Val Sheridan; Jack Wharton (0-3, 2f), Liam Duignan (0-4), Pauric Tully (0-3, 1f). Subs: Adrian McCaffrey for J Cullen, Niall Sheridan for V Sheridan, Cian Geoghegan for C Sheridan, Wayne Johnson for L Duignan, Niall Corcoran for P Brady, Killian O'Reilly (0-1) for P Tully.

Kill Shamrocks: Killian Brady; Ronan Brady, Barry McMenamin, Shane Tiernan; Emmet Magee, Shane McCann, Aaron McIntyre; Brian Crowe, Liam Keane; Conor McCaffrey (0-1), Sean Gaffney (0-1, 1f), Gary Tiernan; Damien O'Brien (1-0), Niall McCaffrey (0-1), Pearse McKenna (0-1). Subs: Darragh McMenamin for R Brady, Ciaran O'Reilly for S Tiernan, Francis Hand for B McMenamin, Ben McIntyre for L Keane, Donal Coll for B Crowe, Liam Kelly for N McCaffrey.

Ref: Raymond Tynan (Ramor United)

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