Dunphy and Connolly to the fore as Ballyfin move to Premier Intermediate hurling final

LAOIS SHOPPING CENTRE PREMIER INTERMEDIATE HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI FINAL

BALLYFIN 2-19

CAMROSS 3-13

Match winning performances from Garreth Dunphy and Darragh Connolly helped Ballyfin get over the line and defeat Camross to reach the Premier Intermediate hurling final in two weeks time.

They deserved their win but Camross were not far away. They had a serious purple patch in the third quarter and will know that it wouldn't have taken much more to reverse the scoreline.

Only a point separated them at the second water break before a Darragh Connolly goal nine minutes from time proved the match winning score.

It took Laois County star Eanna Lyons just 22 seconds to land the opening score of the game from out near the sideline while the first of the day for Garreth Dunphy had the Ballyfin men leading 0-2 to 0-0 after just two minutes of play.

Darrell Dooley got Camross off the mark a minute later before Dan Delaney levelled proceedings early on with his first score of the evening.

Ballyfin looked the sharper in the opening stages and they managed to build up a 0-5 to 0-2 lead by the 12th minute with Dunphy, Eanna Lyons and Gary Hoffmeister all raising white flags.

Playing with the wind, they needed all these scores but they were proving wasteful with long range shooting and sure enough, just before the water break, they were punished.

Camross corner forward Dan Delaney caught a super ball, took on and beat his man before teeing up Tomas Keyes who made no mistake in finding the net.

Despite Ballyfin starting the brighter, it was the Camross men who held a slender 1-3 to 0-5 lead at the water break.

Richard Downey levelled the game up after the water break before Dan Delaney struck his third free of the game. The close nature continued and with 10 minutes to go in the half, Ballyfin were ahead with Darragh Connolly landing a point under pressue and Dunphy firing over a long range free to leave it 0-8 to 1-4.

Ballyfin began to kick on now and reinforce their lead. By the 25th minute they led 0-11 to 1-4 with Garreth Dunphy's sublime score from a tight angle the pick of the bunch on 24 minutes.

It stayed like that up until first half injury time when Garreth Dunphy pointed a '65' after his goal chance was deflected wide seconds earlier.

Camross fired over with Dan Delaney pointing in the 32nd minute of the half, their first score since the 19th minute before Eanna Lyons landed his third from play to put Ballyfin leading 0-13 to 1-5 at the break.

It was all action at the start of the second half. Eamon Duff and Tomas Keyes traded points before Camross got a lifeline when Darrell Dooley's effort at a point from inside his own half dropped short and through the fingers of Ballyfin keeper Eoin Connolly for their second goal making it 0-14 to 2-6.

That was short lived as with the next attack, Garreth Dunphy controlled a low ball superbly, took on his man before feeding Gary Hoffmeister who found the net from close range to make it 1-14 to 2-6 in favour of Ballyfin affter 35 minutes.

Frees from Dan Delaney an Eoin Dowling followed for Camross before Dean Delaney saw his effort at goal dribble wide, a let off for Ballyfin.

Camross now had the fire in their bellies and a rousing score from Matthew Collier brought it back to a two point game with 20 minutes to go.

Garreth Dunphy restored the three point lead for Ballyfin with a free but Camross, who now had the aid of the strong breeze were sticking to their guns.

They hit the next three scores, with Tomas Keyes and two from Dan Delaney, the second a massive score from distance, to bring the sides back level. Then just before the water break, Dunphy added a routine, close range free to leave Ballyfin up by a point at the water break - 1-16 to 2-12 and the game was all to play for.

With nine minutes to go, Ballyfin struck for a massive score. A long ball in wasn't dealt with by the Camross full back line and Darragh Connolly got in behind and found the net. Dan Delaney got a point back for Camross but they were dealt a big blow with five minutes remaining when Dean Delaney was shown a straight red card for an off the ball incident.

It was all going wrong for Camross as Ballyfin pulled away even further. Eamon Duff got his second while two on the spin for Darragh Connolly had them comfortable at 2-19 to 2-13 with time almost up.

BALLYFIN

Scorers: Garreth Dunphy 0-8 (0-4 frees and 0-2 '65's), Darragh Connolly 1-3, Gary Hoffmeister 1-1, Eanna Lyons 0-3, Eamon Duff 0-2, David Connolly and Richard Downey 0-1 each.

Team: Eoin Connolly; Ciaran Rowney, Max Connolly, Louis Duff; James Finn, Allan Connolly, Eamon Duff; David Connolly, Darragh Connolly; Kevin O'Rourke, Eanna Lyons, Richard Downey; Garreth Dunphy, Gary Hoffmeister, Cillian Rowney. Subs: Shane Conroy for Louis Duff (ht), Darragh Lyons for Gary Hoffmeister (58), Sean O'Rourke for Darragh Connolly (60)

CAMROSS

Scorers: Dan Delaney 0-8 (0-6 frees), Tomas Keyes 2-2, Darrell Dooley 1-1, Matthew Collier and Eoin Dowling (free) 0-1 each.

Team: Cillian Tiernan; Cian Delaney, Daniel Breen, Thomas Palmer; Robert Tyrell, Eoin Dowling, Craig Delaney; Colin Palmer, Robert Delaney; Darrell Dooley, Matthew Collier, Kevin Lalor; Tomas Keyes, Dean Delaney, Dan Delaney. Subs: Jack Phelan for Robert Delaney (ht), Niall Bennett for Kevin Lalor (44), Tomas Burke for Matthew Collier (56)

Referee: John Lalor

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