County Senior Hurling Championship
De La Salle 3-25
Ballyduff Upper 0-13

Brian Flannery Reports
City side De La Salle cruised into the quarter-finals of the Waterford senior hurling championship with a facile 21point victory over a hapless Ballyduff Upper side.The gulf in standard between the two sides was enormous with Ballyduff Upper now having lost 17 of their last 21 senior hurling games. There was a very small attendance present at Fraher Field to witness this miss-match on a beautiful summers’ evening.
Three first quarter goals from De La Salle put the game beyond their opponents with only the margin of victory to be decided thereafter.The electric Cormac McCann had the opening goal after skating away from his marker before finding the top corner of the net with just three minutes elapsed. After minutes minutes another McCann goal effort was only parried by the Ballyduff Upper net minder with Jack Fagan on hand to force the ball over the goal-line from close in.

Ballyduff's Shane Hannon controls the sliothar ahead of De La Salle's Cormac McCann .

Ballyduff's Shane Hannon controls the sliothar ahead of De La Salle's Cormac McCann .


The goal scoring was rounded off in the 15th minute when a long ball by the impressive Mikey Costigan was fumbled by goalkeeper Michael McCormack with the vigilant Jack Fagan again on hand to whip the loose ball to the net from close to the end line, 3-04 to 0-2.The traffic was all one way with the Gracedieu side having different different scorers in the opening on the way to a 3-11 to 0-5 half-time lead.
Shane McNulty and Mikey Costigan were outstanding in defence with Jack Fagan and Cormac McCann running riot at the opposite end. Eoghan Murray was the only man in red to provide any resistance in the opening half hitting all of his sides five first half points.On a warm evening the second half became a leisurely stroll with the scoring rate for the winners dipping somewhat.Jack Fagan, Cormac McCann, Eddie Barrett, Paidi Nevin and Jake Dillon all managed to register a pair of white flaggers during the second period.
De La Salle could even afford to have goalkeeper Shaun O’Brien blaze a penalty over the bar after Jack Fagan was fouled inside the large parallelogram, but it mattered little. Eoghan Murray continued to nail any opportunity that came his way while county player Mikey Kearney landed four impressive second half points for the vanquished.De La Salle on this evidence look best placed to challenge the current champions and are safely through the knock-out stages with a one hundred per cent record from their three Group games. Ballyduff Upper on the other hand are likely to be more concerned with survival than winning the senior title.