Mary Immaculate have 13-points to spare to set up a Limerick-Galway Fitzgibbon Cup semi final:
By Jerome O’Connell Limerick Leader Sports
LIMERICK’S Mary Immaculate College advanced to the semi final of the Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup this Thursday with a 2-20 to 0-13 win over Cork IT.
Champions in 2016 and 2017, Mary I will now play NUI Galway in the semi final next Tuesday.
The Jamie Wall managed Limerick side led from the second minute when Gary Cooney goaled and they never looked in trouble.
The Limerick side beat Maynooth and DIT to reach the knockout stages and lined out with two Limerickmen in their team – Thomas Grimes (Na Piarsaigh) and Aaron Gillane (Patrickswell).
The Cork side lost to DUC but then regrouped to beat Waterford IT to reach the quarter final – CIT had 2017 Limerick All-Ireland winning U-21 full back, Daragh Fanning in their no3 shirt.
Mary Immaculate College were 1-4 to 0-1 ahead after five minutes and that was with the breeze favouring the Cork side.
By half time it was 1-10 to 0-6 to Mary Immaculate with Galway senior Thomas Monaghan helping himself to three points from play.
Aaron Gillane was to finish with nine points and had four in the opening half.
Also on the mark was wing back Thomas Grimes with a long range effort to close the scoring for the Limerick side who were eight points clear at one stage of the opening half.
Cork IT appeared to up their intensity in the second half but Mary Immaculate saw off their early challenge and finished back on top.
It was 1-14 to 0-10 after 10-minutes of the second half.
Mary Immaculate had Gillane, Colin Guilfoyle and Micheal O’Loughlin all on target to ease the lead out to 1-16 to 0-12 entering the final 10-minutes.
Cork senior Luke Meade sealed the impressive win in injury time with a cracking goal to book a semi final spot.
SCORERS: Mary Immaculate: Aaron Gillane 0-9 (5frees, 1 ’65, 1lineball), Thomas Monaghan 0-4, Gary Cooney 1-1, Luke Meade 1-0, Philip Hickey 0-2, Colin O’Brien, Thomas Grimes, Colin Guilfoyle, Micheal O’Loughlin 0-1 each. CIT: Josh Beausang 0-7 (6frees), Andrew Coffey and Shane Cummins 0-2 each, Brian Everard and Conal Donovan 0-1 each.
MARY IMMACULATE: Eoghan Cahill (Offaly); Eoghan Ryan (Tipperary), David Prendergast (Waterford), Seamus Downey (Clare); Craig Morgan (Tipperary), Darren Browne (Cork), Thomas Grimes (Na Piarsaigh, Limerick); Philip Hickey (Tipperary), Luke Meade (Cork); Colin Guilfoyle (Clare), Aaron Gillane (Patrickswell, Limerick), Colin O’Brien (Cork); Thomas Monaghan (Galway), Micheal O’Loughlin (Clare); Gary Cooney (Clare). Subs: Brian Buckley (Cork) for Eoghan Ryan (37mins), Sean Burke (Cork) for Micheal O’Loughlin (50mins), Eimhin Kelly (Offaly) for Gary Cooney (54mins), Stephen Farrell (Kilkenny) for Colin O’Brien (57mins).
CORK IT: Patrick Collins (Cork); Eoin Healy (Cork), Daragh Fanning (Pallasgreen, Limerick), Kevin Galvin (Kilkenny); Daniel Harrington (Cork), Enda Heffernan (Tipperary), Conor Prunty (Waterford); John Good (Cork), David Noonan (Cork); Brian Everard (Cork), John Cooper (Cork), Shane Cummins (Cork); Josh Beausang (Cork), Andrew Coffey (Tipperary), Ryan Walsh (Cork). Subs: William Hurley (Cork) for John Cooper (h-t), Kevin Duggan (Kilkenny) for John Good (55mins), John Elsted (Waterford) for Ryan Walsh (57mins).
REFEREE: Thomas Walsh (Waterford).