Leinster U20 Hurling Championship Results
Kilkenny 6-14 Laois 1-13
Offaly 0-15 Galway 1-12
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KILKENNY SENIOR GEARÓID Dunne blasted four goals as the Cats came from behind to beat Laois in the Leinster U-20 HC, propelling them through to the semi-finals.
After an impressive Round 1 defeat of Wexford, Kilkenny had to dig deeper this time for a 6-14 to 1-13 win over Laois, despite what the scoreline suggests.
In doing so, they guaranteed themselves top spot in Leinster’s three-team Tier 1, Group 2 and a May 15 semi-final outing.
With Storm Kathleen raging throughout the afternoon, and Kilkenny playing into the wind initially, they had a nervous half hour or so.
Hosts Laois put 1-3 on the board inside the opening four minutes, thanks in part to Cormac Byrne’s goal, registered 1-5 before Kilkenny even scored and were still ahead at half-time by 1-9 to 2-5.
Free-taker Ben Deegan from Camross lofted over five points from frees for Laois in the first-half while Conor Fitzpatrick, Eoghan Cuddy and Jer Quinlan were on the mark too.
Kilkenny trailed by nine points after the first quarter but goals from Marty Murphy and Dunne in the 10 minutes or so before half-time hauled the favourites back.
Harry Shine tied it up with a point after the restart for Kilkenny who finally took the lead for the first time in the 34th minute when Dunne struck his second goal.
It ended up being one-way traffic in that second-half as Kilkenny outscored Laois by 4-9 to 0-4.
Dunne, who featured for Kilkenny in the 2023 and 2024 National League campaigns, sealed his hat-trick in the 37th minute and added a fourth from his second penalty conversion of the afternoon.
Dunne finished with 4-2 in total and was among 10 different Kilkenny scorers with Niall Holland also raising a green flag for the Cats.
Meanwhile, Rory Burke fired a 60th minute leveller as Galway came from behind to draw with Offaly in Tullamore, 1-12 to 0-15.
Reigning champions Offaly, beaten by Cork in last year’s All-Ireland U-20 final, looked set for back to back wins when they led by five points with six minutes to go.
Three second-half Barry Egan points and eight in total from senior Adam Screeney had put Offaly in a commanding position after a strong third quarter.
But they didn’t score again as Galway reeled off the last five points of the game with scores from free-taker Aaron Niland and Oisin Lohan teeing it up for Burke to hit the leveller.
Loughrea talent Darren Shaughnessy fired the Galway goal in the 22nd minute, a terrific drive across the goalkeeper from 13 metres out, nudging them 1-5 to 0-7 ahead at half-time.
Galway will travel to play Dublin next weekend in the final game in Tier 1′s Group 2.
In Tier 2, Group 2, Eoin Stapleton’s Kildare defeated Kerry by 4-15 to 0-6. Fionn Maher and James Dolan hit first-half goals for Kildare who led by 11 points at half-time.
Dolan struck two more majors after the break to complete a stunning hat-trick for the hosts who will meet Carlow in their final group game next Friday. But it’s back to back defeats for Kerry following their Round 1 loss to Carlow.
Meath followed up on their Round 1 draw with Westmeath in Tier 2, Group with an excellent second-half display to beat Derry 1-16 to 1-10 in Navan.
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