Early Graham brace, and terrible Galway shooting, send Dublin U20s to Leinster final
Leinster U20 Hurling Championship semi-final: Dublin 2-18 Galway 0-17
In a contest that had more than a few echoes of Dublin's shock win over Galway at the same stage last year, two early goals from Callum Graham and a shocking shooting performance from Galway in the second half means that the highly-fancied Westerners crashed out of the Leinster U20 championship in Tullamore tonight, while Dublin will advance to a final clash against Kilkenny.
After falling seven points behind in the opening minutes, Galway recovered brilliantly to trail by just three points at the interval, 2-8 to 0-11.
Fergal Healy's side were in control of most sectors of the field, with the exception of the top of the pitch where Conor Groarke and David Lucey were exceptional, with Aaron Niland struggling to overcome his recent injury.
Rory Burke and Paddy Mac Cárthaigh racked up the scores at midfield but just as they did in the first half, Galway started slow for the second and conceded four of the first five points, with Graham again to the fore.
Galway continued to have the better of the possession battle, but their inaccuracy up front was to haunt them as they racked up 13 second half wides through a combination of poor shot selection and poor execution, while adding a mere 0-6 to their tally despite the breeze getting even stronger as the half progressed.
Both Donagh Fahy and Daniel Joyce made superb saves to deny Ollie Gaffney and Cullen Killeen, but a brave goal-line block from Lucey to prevent Brian Callanan forcing the ball over the line proved crucial, as Galway followed up with three wides in a row.
They visibly lost confidence as late scores from Senan Crosbie and Ollie Gaffney, including a last minute penalty, pushed the Dubs further and further ahead.
Scorers for Dublin: C Graham 2-3, D O'Kelly 0-5f, O Gaffney 0-5 (0-2f, 0-1 pen), S Crosbie 0-3, C Ó Riain 0-1, B Kenny 0-1.
Scorers for Galway: R Burke 0-7 (0-4f), P Mac Cárthaigh 0-2, B Callanan 0-2, J Rabbitte 0-2, C Killeen 0-2, C Lawless 0-1, A Niland 0-1f.
DUBLIN: D Joyce; D Lucey, C Groarke, B Lynch; J Sheppard, C Ó Riain, K Costello; F Murphy, J Kinnane; S Crosbie, B Kenny, D O'Kelly; O Gaffney, D Kilduff, C Graham.
SUBS: J Norris for Kilduff (28), N Fitzgerald for O'Kelly (53), S Bolger for Norris (58), J Kavanagh for Kinnane (60+2).
GALWAY: D Fahy; S Murphy, B O'Donovan, C Lawless; E O'Reilly, J Donnellan, G King; R Burke, P Mac Cárthaigh; G Maher, C Killeen, J Rabbitte; B Callanan, V Morgan, A Niland.
SUBS: D Counihan for Donnellan (37), R O'Donnell for Morgan (42), M Burke for Niland (47), T Blake for O'Donovan (52), D Campbell for Maher (56) Referee: Conor Daly (Kildare).
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