Cork found an extra gear in the second half to spoil Louth’s hopes of an All-Ireland SFC qualifier upset in Portlaoise this afternoon, with Billy Morgan's men running out two-point winners.
Cork gained the upper hand by kicking seven of the game's final nine points with James Masters (0-05, 3f) leading their scoring.
Helped by some snapping shooting from Aaron Hoey (0-03), Brian White and Colm Judge (0-02 each), Louth overcame an early deficit to hold a 0-09 to 0-08 lead at half-time.
A Mark Stanfield ‘45’ had the underdogs 0-12 to 0-09 ahead but Cork bossed the remainder to win through to the All-Ireland quarter-finals for the third successive year.
Louth fielded an unchanged team to the one that shocked Kildare in Newbridge last weekend, for what was their seventh game of the summer.
Cork made two changes to the side that lost the Munster final to Kerry three weeks ago. John Miskella and Conor McCarthy were added to the Rebels’ defence and attack respectively, and it was Morgan's side who were first off the mark as team captain Derek Kavanagh pointed after only 25 seconds.
In a bright opening full of fast-paced attacking football, the sides were level on three occasions with Louth initially going 0-02 to 0-01 ahead thanks to frees from Brian White and Aaron Hoey.
Although a Donnacha O'Connor free and defender Kieran O’Connor’s first ever Championship point, which Miskella teed up in a sweeping move, edged Cork in front, Louth stuck doggedly to their task.
The terrier-like Colm Judge was proving a handful for the Cork defence and he punched the air after his towering ninth-minute point levelled at 0-03 apiece.
Using their height at midfield to good advantage, Cork then went on a spurt and claimed the game's next three points.
Michael Cussen and Pearse O’Neill combined to set up Masters for a peach of a point, a right-sided thrust forward from Graham Canty resulted in a Kevin McMahon point and Cussen, having only his fourth Championship outing, also laid off for Nicholas Murphy to bisect the uprights.
Nearly a quarter-of-an-hour in, the score stood at 0-06 to 0-03 and Cork were motoring with five of their points from open play at that stage.
However this Louth side is made of stern stuff – they came back from the dead against Wicklow last month and displayed plenty of quality over the past fortnight to end the campaigns of both Limerick and Kildare.
After going 0-06 to 0-03 behind, Eamonn McEneaney's charges hit five points on the trot to really gain a foothold in this third round clash.
Brian White flung over a free from the left to get the run going and the tactic of using Shane Lennon and the nippy Judge in a two-man full-forward line began to pay dividends.
Louth were making the Cork defence look sluggish and two scores from the experienced Hoey, who was giving his marker Ger Spillane a tough time, tied up the game again.
A short stoppage followed as Louth's John O’Brien, in attempting to play a cross-field ball, smacked referee Martin Duffy flush in the face with the ball but soon it was Cork's turn to be gob-smacked as points from Ronan Carroll and Judge moved the Wee county 0-08 to 0-06 ahead.
Just after the half-hour mark, Conor McCarthy curled a shot over the bar, brilliantly drifting it in from left to right, to end a spell of 18 minutes without a score for Cork.
Poor passing blighted the Rebels' play during that barren spell and the highballs in towards giant full-forward Cussen were simply too far from goal to be of any danger.
The usually reliable Masters was also being forced to shoot from out wide by some tenacious Louth tackling, but man-of-the-match McMahon did manage to cancel out a Shane Lennon score with one of his own and make it a one-point game at the break.
McEneaney brought on Shane Lennon for the second half and he shot the first of three unanswered points for Louth as they took a 0-12 to 0-09 advantage.
A Donnacha O'Connor free had got Cork back on terms initially, but Lennon, Clarke and Stanfield, who thumped over an excellent '45', helped Louth roar back in front and keep up their hopes of repeating their 1957 All-Ireland final victory over Cork.
Nonetheless, from the 43rd-minute onwards Cork took a stranglehold on proceedings as they moved into fifth gear and got their running game going.
Failing to panic, the beaten Munster finalists scored three points in as many minutes to quickly erase Louth's lead.
Pearse O'Neill fisted over after a good run from Anthony Lynch, an excellent save from Stuart Reynolds was required to parry a Masters shot over the bar and the sides were level for a sixth time when McMahon punched through the posts.
With Murphy winning plenty of kick-out ball, Cork continued to press for scores and three frees from Masters (0-02) and O’Connor saw them surge into a 0-15 to 0-12 lead.
A stylish score from the left from Hoey reduced the arrears for Louth in the 58th-minute and despite Cork’s second half dominance, McEneaney's outfit were still in touch right up to the finish.
A Masters' free – his fifth point of the afternoon – handed Cork a three-point buffer and that was effectively enough for them to hold on and make the last-eight of the 2007 championship. Louth battled on, Clarke swung over a point off his left, two minutes from time, but with no goal chance coming their way, Louth’s summer was at an end.
Cork: P O'Shea; M Shields, G Canty, K O'Connor (0-01); J Miskella, G Spillane, A Lynch; N Murphy (0-01), D Kavanagh (capt) (0-01); C McCarthy (0-01), P O'Neill (0-01), K McMahon (0-03); J Masters (0-05, 0-03f), M Cussen, D O'Connor (0-03, 0-03f).
Subs used: F Goold for McCarthy, D Goulding for McMahon (both 67 mins), E Sexton for Shields (70+1)
Louth: S Reynolds; A Page, C Goss, J Neary; J O'Brien, M Fanning, P McGinnity (capt); P Keenan, R Carroll (0-01); B White (0-02, 0-02f), M Farrelly, M Stanfield (0-01, 0-01 '45'); A Hoey (0-04, 0-02f), S Lennon (0-02), C Judge (0-02).
Subs used: D Clarke (0-02) for White (half-time), D Finnegan for McGinnity, R Finnegan for Farrelly (both 54 mins), JJ Quigley for Stanfield (63), J Murray for Judge (68).
Referee: Martin Duffy (Sligo).
