Corofin into Connacht final after seeing off Ballina

Corofin 0-16 Ballina Stephenites 0-12

Galway champions Corofin, the most prolific winners of the Connacht SFC title, advanced to the provincial final when they proved too strong for Ballina Stephenites at Pearse Stadium.

They shot 14 points from play to set up a Connacht final showdown against either St Brigid's of Roscommon or Leitrim champions Mohill.

Corofin, having played with the strong breeze, led by 0-09 to 0-03 at half-time as both sides battled with the difficult wet conditions in front of a crowd of about 1,000.

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The Galway champions used the wind well and raced into a 0-04 to 0-00 lead after 12 minutes with 39-year old Gary Sice leading the way with a couple of frees, while captain Dylan McHugh and promising midfielder Patrick Egan both went forward to shoot good points.

Ballina, already without Mayo player Padraig O’Hora, suffered a further blow when they lost experienced full-back Ger Cafferkey when the former All Star suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury after just eleven minutes.

Frank Irwin got them off the mark at the end of the opening quarter when he pointed a free after Evan Regan was fouled, but Corofin hit back and struck for four points in a five minute spell when Sice curling over a superb point from the left after a brilliant dummy past Jack Irwin, while Egan went forward for his second point and Jack McCabe kicked two excellent efforts to lead by 0-08 to 0-01 after 22 minutes.

But they only managed one more score before the break, with