’Salle march into semis

ALTHOUGH Passage bagged a brace of goals in the closing seven minutes of their Waterford SHC quarter-final against holders De La Salle at Walsh Park on Saturday, the 2-18 to 3-12 scoreline doesn’t nearly mirror the measure of the champions’ dominance.

Passage were boosted by a goal from Eoin Kelly after 16 minutes, but Jake Dillon replied in kind for De La Salle seven minutes later, and his second deep into added first-half time enabled the champions to lead 2-9 to 1-4 at the break.

With John Mullane rifling over the points — half a dozen in all — and former county man Bryan Phelan helping himself to four, ‘Salle remained in cruise control. Passage never threw in the towel however but goals from Kelly in the 53rd minute (he ended with a tally of 2-4) and substitute John Mcleane in injury time only helped to give the scoreline a more respectable appearance.