Cuchulainns 5-14
Butlersbridge 1-12

Cuchulainns struck four second-half goals to thump Butlersbridge with 14 points to spare and pick up their second win in as many weekend in the intermediate championship.

Ace attacker Adam O'Reilly registered a hat-trick of goals for the east Cavan, whom were made come from behind in this Round 2 clash at PJ Duke Park, Stradone after the Bridge had led by four at the halfway stage.

Indeed the final score-lined served to flatter the winners somewhat as their opponents had only trailed them by two points before they let in three goals between the 54th and 57th minutes.

Cuchulainns had made the better start through the early points of Conor Smith, Bryan Magee and Eugene Keating, which had them 0-3 to 0-1 in front after eight minutes prior to the Bridge rattling off three without reply.

The Bridge clawed it back through and Peter Conaty's frees (2) put them two points to the good come the quarter hour mark. Encouragingly, they'd convert even more in their dominant spell to have the scoreboard reading 0-8 to 0-3 in their favour after 20 minutes.

Evan Doughty snuck in for a sorely needed Cuchulainns goal three minutes later and another point from Magee brought the difference down the minimum before their counterparts conjured a quick 1-1 to take in somewhat of a surprise 1-9 to 1-5 lead the half.

It took all of five minutes from the resumption for the Cuckoos to level proceedings, with ex-county minor O'Reilly raising their second green flag off the back of some brilliant work by Doughty.

Smith squared the sides before O'Reilly steered the east siders into the lead again on 38 minutes.

Magee (free) and O'Reilly sailed over scores to outweigh one from Cavan forward Caoimhin O'Reilly at the other end and the gap was at three again for Cuchulainns when talisman Keating took a feed from Magee and turned to split the posts.

Magee (free) added another ahead of two more placed balls from Caoimhin O'Reilly which put this contest in the melting pot for the closing 10 minutes.

The Bridge had chances to narrow down the margin but their wheels came off when the victors fired in three goals in as many minutes.

Adam O'Reilly buried in the first of three and immediately afterwards Doughty repeated the trick and that had it at 4-11 to 1-12 with just four minutes remaining.

The aforementioned O'Reilly hammered home number five a minute later as scores from Doughty (45), Smith and Gavin Daly rounded off what turned into a rout at the finish.

In Mullahoran, Barry Doyle's late free saved a 0-12 to 0-12 draw for Cornafean against Ballyhaise at Our Lady of Lourdes Park.

Last year's beaten finalists (and champions in 2015) had led by 0-8 to 0-7 at the break thanks to late points in the half from Cavan midfielder Sean McCormack and Don Gorby and kept their noses in front through the second-half until Doyle struck the equalising free in the sixth minute of injury time for the Reds.

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