In very difficult conditions at the Kerry GAA Centre of Excellence in Currans, Mercy Mounthawk recorded a massive 22-point victory over an Intermediate School Killorglin side who failed to cope sufficiently with the swirling crossfield gale on the pitch.

The Tralee side found themselves with an incredible 3-2 to 0-0 lead after only seven minutes as their opponents only registered two points in the opening period.

Michael O’Gara, Paul Buckley and Shane McCarthy rattled the net in quick succession to emphasise Mounthawk’s dominance early on as Killorglin had to wait 12 minutes for their first point from Ronan O’Shea, with Gearoid Hassett their only other first-half scorer.

Mounthawk’s lead at the break stood at 3-6 to 0-2.

The absence of Kerry underage players David Mangan and Dara Casey proved to be a big factor in Killorglin’s performance.

However, two Matthew Leslie frees and a Rory Murphy effort gave them some faint hope with the conditions as it took Mounthawk 12 minutes to score in the second period.

Mounthawk ended the game as a contest as Paul Buckley’s second goal in the 42nd minute after good work by defender Keith Suter.

Buckley completed his personal hat-trick on the three-quarter mark as O’Gara scored his second goal in a Man-of-the-Match display in the 49 th minute to make it 6-8 to 0-6.

A flurry of points from Darragh Courtney, Donagh McMahon, Daniel Bowler and O’Gara for Mounthawk completed their scoring as points from Hassett, Murphy and Leslie provided little consolation to Killorglin whose hopes of advancing to the knock-out stages appear to be over.

Scorers for MMT: P Buckley (3-0), M O’Gara (2-3), D Bowler (0-4, 1f), S McCarthy (1-0), K O’Connor, J Sheehan, D Doherty, D Courtney, D McMahon and P Linnane (0-1 each)

Scorers for ISK: M Leslie (0-4, 2f), R Murphy (0-2), R O’Shea, G Hassett and E Clifford (0-1 each)

Mercy Mounthawk Tralee: B O’Regan; J Quigley, DB Walsh, A Curran; D Greaney, K O’Connor, J Sheehan; S McCarthy, D Courtney; D Bowler, M O’Gara, P Linnane; D Doherty, D McMahon, P Buckley

Subs: B Oyebanji for Doherty and R Murphy for Greaney (both 48), C Teahan for Buckley (52), S Broderick for Quigley and K O’Sullivan for Linnane (55)

Intermediate School Killorglin: C Knight; E Coffey, K O’Sullivan, K Suter; G Griffin, R O’Connor, S Cleary; S O’Brien, E Clifford; J Hurley, M Leslie, R Murphy; M O’Connor, G Hassett, R O’Shea

Subs: TJ Palmer for O’Shea (45), L Roche for G Griffin (50) and P Griffin for M O’Connor (53).

Referee: G Kerins (Austin Stacks)