Ballygunner made it six in a row with this Waterford SHC title, showing all their experience in seeing off a spirited De La Salle side.

Ballygunner began with the breeze and Pauric Mahony had an early brace before Thomas Douglas responded for De La Salle.

Then on five minutes Michael Mahony made ground down the right before parting to Dessie Hutchinson, who crashed home a goal. Mahony and Conor Sheahan added points and De La Salle were in deep trouble, 1-4 to 0-1.

Jake Dillon had De La Salle’s second point on 15 minutes, but the Gunners had 1-7 on the scoreboard by then.

De La Salle got a lifeline on 20 minutes when a sideline cut broke for Eddie Meaney, who finished to the net: Mahony pointed a free in response, 1-8 to 1-2, but Meaney added a point on the puck-out and Dillon landed a monster from halfway: 1-8 to 1-4.

Tim O’Sullivan and Jack Fagan swapped points and the game was truly alive. Meaney pointed from the sideline with half-time approaching to make it a three point game, but Mahony pointed two injury-time frees to make it 1-11 to 1-6 at the break.

Fagan and Peter Hogan swapped points on the resumption, but good scores from Adam Farrell and Cormac McCann nudged De La Salle closer before Conor Sheahan and Mahony (free) responded: 1-15 to 1-9 on 40 minutes.

De La Salle hit a purple patch: Shane McNulty pointed a 65 and Shane McCann hit two fine points. An Eddie Meaney point and it was 1-13 to 1-15 going into the final quarter.

Ballygunner then took over: Pauric Mahony, Paddy Leavy, Peter Hogan (two) and Barry O’Sullivan had five points in a row to make it 1-20 to 1-13 going into the last ten minutes. The champions saw out the remaining time with ease.

Scorers for Ballygunner: P. Mahony (0-12, 5 frees)(frees); D. Hutchinson (1-3); P. Hogan (0-3); C. Sheahan (0-2); P. Leavy, B. O’Sullivan, T. O’Sullivan, C. Power (0-1 each).

Scorers for De La Salle: E. Meaney (1-3); C. McCann, J. Dillon, J. Fagan (0-3 each); T. Douglas, A. Farrell, S. McNulty (65) (0-1 each).

BALLYGUNNER:

S. O’Keeffe, E. Hayden, I. Kenny, B. O’Keeffe, C. Sheahan, Philip Mahony (c), B. Coughlan, M. Mahony, S. O’Sullivan, D. Hutchinson, Pauric Mahony, B. O’Sullivan, P. Hogan, T. O’Sullivan, P. Leavy.

Subs: C. Power (jc) for T. O’Sullivan (45); W. Hutchinson for Sheahan and JJ Hutchinson for Leavy (60); B. Power for O'Keeffe (61).

DE LA SALLE:

S. O’Brien, R. Duke, C. Giles Doran, M. Doherty, S. McNulty, K. Moran T. Moran, E. Barrett, A. Farrell, P. Nevin, J. Dillon, J. Fagan, E. Meaney, T. Douglas, C. McCann.

Subs: S. Ryan for Nevin (45); D. Twomey for Farrell (51).

Referee:

M. O’Brien (Portlaw).