Sars simply too good for Bishopstown with defending champions in ominous form
HANDLE WITH CARE: Sarsfields' Paul Leopold gets his pass away under pressure from Bishopstown's Luke Lordan during their Premier SHC clash at Rathcormac. Picture: David Keane.
Sarsfields booked their place in the semi-finals of the Co-Op Superstores Premier Senior Hurling Championship by hammering Bishopstown 1-25 to 0-12 in Rathcormac.
The defending champions enjoyed a spread of scorers on the day, with 11 different players finding the target. Daniel Hogan led the line with 0-8 and Cathal McCarthy got the goal in the final second of injury time.
The real story at full-time was the faith of The Town, as they will play Charleville in the relegation play-off.
That dominated the pre-match discussion, with supporters dreaming of another late upset to guarantee safety for Bishopstown just like their final day victory over Glen Rovers last year or when scoring difference kept them up in 2021.
What played out was predictable, despite the first 25 minutes being a fair battle between the two clubs. It actually looked like they rolled back the clock to their classic encounter in the county final in 2012, which Sars won by a point. The two teams were level five times in the first half, and that trickled out into a period of predicted dominance by the defending champions.
Sars controlled every position, every key match-up, and every statistic. They even had more wides than Bishopstown at the break, with seven misses by Johnny Crowley’s side. For a brief moment, with the umpires waving chances wide, it was an even match-up that could have went anywhere.
Bryan Murphy got the score of the game inside 20 seconds by driving the sliotar over the bar from inside his own 45. David Quaid immediately replied for Bishopstown, and Hogan combined with O’Connor to put Sars in front 0-3 to 0-1.
A lone white flag from Colm O’Driscoll and a Thomas Murray free ensured parity, and then Mark Driscoll put over a free and The Town led for the first and only time.
That was during a brief moment in time when things started going against Sars. That took the form of three wides and a handful of Bishopstown turnovers, but it quickly mounted to nothing as the defending champions wrestled control of the game back from their city rivals. Sars ended up going on a 0-8 to 0-2 run, and that made the scoreboard read 0-12 to 0-7 at the break.
A big reason for that was the performance of Cork star O’Connor. The full-forward executed the same move each time to perfection, winning the sliotar, running into space, and putting it over the bar.
Simplicity worked and it was the foundation of a 0-7 run by Sars at the start of the second half. Daniel Kearney started this and Hogan followed up by scoring a brace, with the two white flags going up within seconds of one another. Conor O’Sullivan contributed one point from his position at corner back, James O’Leary got his first of two scores during that spell, and Hogan converted a free. Aaron Myers finished it by announcing his arrival with a fine effort from distance, just seconds after replacing Kearney in the 40th minute.
The best Bishopstown could do was two points from Thomas Murray, a free and a tap over from right in front of the posts.
O’Leary then got his second and Luke Elliott, another full-back capable of putting the ball over the bar, split the posts.
That made it 0-24 to 0-12, with less than five minutes on the clock. Sars weren’t finished. Cathal McCarthy polished the scoreboard in the final seconds with a breakaway goal. The move started on his own 45 and ended with the substitute beating Mark Driscoll.
D Hogan 0-8 (3f); Cathal McCarthy 1-0, J O’Connor 0-3, L Elliot 0-3, S O’Regan 0-2, B Murphy 0-2, J O’Leary 0-2, A Myers 0-2, C O’Sullivan 0-1, D Kearney 0-1, Colm McCarthy 0-1.
T Murray 0-5 (4f); B Murray 0-2 (1f), M Driscoll 0-2 (2f), D Quaid 0-1, G Murphy 0-1, C O’Driscoll 0-1.
D McCarthy; C O’Sullivan, C Leahy, L Elliott, B Murphy, C Roche, P Leopold, C Darcy, J O’Leary, D Kearney, D Hogan, J Sweeney, J O’Connor, C McCarthy, S O’Regan.
A Myers for D Kearney (40); B Nodwell for Sweeney (44), W Kearney for O’Connor (47), Cathal McCarthy for O’Regan (53).
M Driscoll; R Foley, D Daly, S Murphy, G Murphy, C O’Hora, C Dunne, D Quaid, B Murray, M McStay, C O’Driscoll, D Driscoll, L Lordan, T Murray, D Murray.
B McCarthy for Driscoll (41); C Daly for Lordan (47), S Sheridan for Dunne (51), D Breen for T Murray (56).
Aidan Hyland (Kilworth)
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
