Holders St Patrick's produced a majestic second-half performance, scoring 1-9, to completely overwhelm St Joseph's of Rochfortbridge in Mullingar yesterday.
St Joseph's could never match their formidable opponents for scoring power and just five points from Gordon McDonnell was a much smaller return than required.
Corner forward Simon O'Connor pounced for St Patrick's first goal after five minutes of the second half and the floodgates opened.
ST PATRICK'S: S Murray; I Matthews, K Slattery (capt), E Donoghue; P Quinn, R Kenny, R Conaty; D Sheridan, D O'Toole (0-3); P Treacy, S Stevens (0-1), J Friel (0-2); D Murtagh, J Sheridan (1-4, two frees), S O'Connor (1-2). Subs: A Gillic (0-1) for O'Connor, B Regan (0-2) for Murtagh, G Brennan for Conaty, P Murray for Friel, R Shiels for Treacy.
ST JOSEPH'S: D Molloy, P Sheridan, D Kavanagh, P Henry, A Cannon, S Burke, R Dunbar, E Miller, D Glennon, S Carter, E Leonard, G McDonnell (0-5), D Cleary, J Bradley, M Cole. Subs: D Bradley for Cole, M Gorman for D Bradley, M Kavanagh for Cleary.
Referee: M Monaghan (Kildare).
