Canning powers Portumna victory

REIGNING champions Portumna sealed a place in the quarter-finals of the Galway senior hurling championship when they defeated Kinvara by 2-22 to 1-10 in a repeat of the 2007 county final.

Portumna responded to an early David Huban goal from a 20-metre free by scoring 10 points in as many minutes. Joe Canning scored five of these with the Smith brothers, Andy, Leo and Peter adding five more between them.

By half-time Portumna led by 0-13 to 1-3 and three minutes into the second half the game was over as a contest when Niall Hayes had added Portumna’s first goal.

Joe Canning collected a pass from Andy Smith to score Portumna’s second goal when he blasted past helpless Galway custodian Colm Callanan.

Canning scored 1-13 of Portumna’s total of which 1-7 came from play, despite the fact that he was marked by Galway’s current skipper Shane Kavanagh.

But former All-Ireland club champions Athenry are dangerously close to facing the relegation area of Galway hurling as they lost their third successive game in this year’s championship, going down to Craughwell 1-18 to 1-12.

Athenry now have to play Kiltormer and, if they fail to win, they’ll be in a fight to avoid dropping from senior.

Last year’s runners-up Loughrea proved too strong for a young Sarsfields side winning by 3-11 to 1-7, having led by 0-7 to 0-2 at the break.

When Ronan Quinn latched on to a long-range free from Kerrill Wade to score a Sarsfields goal, it gave some hope to Sarsfields, but midway through the half Loughrea sealed the game when they scored two goals in three minutes from Johnny O’Loughlin and Neil Keary. O’Loughlin added a third Loughrea goal to give his side a comfortable victory in the end.

St Thomas’ produced a shock for county finalists of 2008, Gort, when defeating them 1-15 to 1-13. Former Galway underage star Kenneth Burke scored an early goal for St Thomas’ but former All-Ireland minor winning skipper Richie Commins scored a Gort goal five minutes from the break to reduce the margin to six points at the break.

Tynagh-Abbey-Duniry saved themselves from entering the relegation zone when they condemned Turloughmore into the drop zone after a merited victory over the former kingpins of Galway hurling. Goals in either half from Shane Mooney and Ronan Madden helped the Tynagh side secured victory 2-15 to 0-12. Supporters were treated to a feast of 40 scores as Clarinbridge defeated Killimordaly 3-21 to 0-16. An Alan Kerins goal helped Clarinbridge into a 1-10 to 0-7 half-time lead and the men from the Oyster country were never in trouble as Paul Coen and Eoin Forde added further goals.

Mullagh defeated Carnmore 1-11 to 0-12 with David Glennon’s second-half goal turning the game in Mullagh’s favour. Carnmore led 0-8 to 0-7 at the break, but Mullagh would prove too strong.