Roche Emmets 3-8
Na Piarsaigh 2-10

Paudie Callaghan fired home a dramatic injury-time goal to send Roche Emmets into the Intermediate Championship semi-final on Friday night.

The Faughart parish side, who recently clinched the Division 3 title, continued their fine run when they saw off the challenge of Na Piarsaigh in an entertaining encounter.

Roche were in impressive form from the outset and a goal on eight minutes from Barry O'Hare helped them to take a 1-3 to 0-1 lead.

The Dundalk men found their rhythm at the start of the second quarter and four unanswered points had them right back in the game.

It looked as if Roche would be back in command at the break as Callaghan added a second goal in the final minute. However, in injury time Na Piarsaigh struck back with a goal from Eamonn McAuley to trail by just 2-4 to 1-6.

The first half also saw the teams reduced to 14 players with Na Piarsaigh having a player see red before Barry O'Hare followed five minutes later for dissent.

It appeared that the loss of O'Hare's scoring threat would prove crucial but his colleagues battled gamely to keep their side in the game as they stretched the advantage to three points.

Na Piarsaigh then hit back to level with an Alan McCartney goal on 39 minutes and from that stage the game remained on a knife-edge. The Rock Road men looked to have done enough when they edged ahead as the game went into injury time only for Callaghan to pounce for a dramatic winning goal.

Na Piarsaigh battled to save the game but a late point proved too little to deny Roche.

ROCHE EMMETS: Sean O'Hare; Duane Callan, Joe Bishop, Sean Kirk; Gerry Murphy, Harry O'Connell, Philip Quinn; David Quigley 0-2, Dan O'Connell 0-2; Barry McConnon, Owen O'Hare, Aaron Callan; Paudie Callaghan 2-0, Barry O'Hare 1-3, Enda Murphy. Subs: Bernard McConnon 0-1, Dermot Craven and Robbie O'Hanlon.

NA PIARSAIGH: Paul O'Hare; Joe Woods, Chris Cotter, Stephen McGuinness; Aidan Marks, Gary O'Hare, Eamon McAuley 1-2; John Garvey 0-1, Michael Woods; Alan McCartney 1-0, Ronan McCartney, Sean McAuley; Cormac Malone, David Boyle 0-6, Niall Franklin. Subs: Conall Shields, Mark Larkin, Gerard Smith 0-1. Tweet

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