Early blitz fires Tralee past Deise
IT Tralee 2-14 Waterford 0-14
IT Tralee continued their preparations for the Sigerson Cup campaign with an excellent victory at Carriganore yesterday.
The students came into this game as the outsiders but proved too strong for their inter-county hosts, who were without several regulars.
IT Tralee strode towards victory in the first six minutes, when they found the Waterford net twice. In the third minute full-forward Mikey Brennan powered his way through before finishing with his left foot. Three minutes later, corner-forward Alan O'Donoghue's deflected effort hit the back of Kieran Cotter's goal.
Waterford were reliant on talisman Gary Hurney for the bulk of their scores. They only managed five first-half points, with three of those coming from Hurney. At the other end, IT Tralee found it a lot easier, especially corner-forward Barry O'Hare from Louth, who finished the opening period with six points.
After the break, Waterford improved but they could not rein in the students who, with Rory Deane starring at midfield, kept the pressure on.
Deane fired over two second-half points which, along with fine scores from O'Donoghue and substitute Andrew Hegarty, proved enough to put the college side through.
Waterford were missing the O'Gorman twins Thomas and Maurice from the full-back line as they have been called in to Michael Ryan's senior hurling squad.
Scorers -- IT Tralee: B O'Hare 0-7 (3f, 1 '45'), A O'Donoghue 1-3 (0-1f), M Brennan 1-0, R Deane 0-2, B O'Grady, A Hegarty 0-1 each. Waterford: G Hurney 0-10 (6f), S O'Hare, S Briggs, L O'Lionain (1f), G Nugent 0-1 each.
IT Tralee -- P O'Sullivan; E Murray, J Scully, D Larkin; AJ O'Connor, S Brosnan, K Conway; R Deane, G O'Driscoll; S Carroll, B O'Grady, B Poff; A O'Donoghue, M Brennan, B O'Hare. Subs: A Hegarty for O'Hare, I Corbett for Poff, N Curran for Deane.
Waterford -- K Cotter; T O hUallachain, K Connery, M Cummins; C O'Keeffe, S Briggs, K Geary; S Dempsey, S O'Hare; L O Lionain, C McGrath, P Hurney; S Fleming, G Hurney, JJ Hutchinson. Subs: S Enright for Cotter, G Nugent for Fleming, J Wall for Hutchinson.
Ref -- K O'Brien (Tipperary)
Irish Independent
