Dublin 1-19 Wexford 1-10

Dublin Leinster have qualified for the Under-20 hurling final as runout winners at Netwatch Dwarf Park on Friday evening. For their best performance of the second half, they outscored a young Wexford team 1-11 to 1-03.

It was tight in the opening half. Liam Murphy fired seven points from established balls and freezes. Rose Banville, on the other hand, scored three points while teammates Sean O’Connor (0-02), Conor Mahoney and David Code also hit the target.

Both teams created chances for each goal. Wexford had a great chance when a small Dublin puck out in the opening quarter blocked an alert forward line, but Richie Lawler’s pass deviated from his free-kick inside.

Dubs was sure to score shortly after, but it was the last break that saved Wexford again. This time Liam Murphy scored 65 runs. The winners led 0-08, 0-07 at the break.

Shortly after the resumption, Darag McBride opened the scoring with a point. They were pressured to shoot four more in a row. Their goalkeeper Eddie Gibbons would have happily settled for one point when he saw his long range free drop for three points under the Wexford crossbar.

Wexford was down but not out at all. In response, they ran the ball from the defense. With great awareness they moved the game closer to Glenn Murphy, who headed in a half-time substitute and fired Gibbons within ten minutes to bring the gap back to five points.

Dublin will not be caught anyway. They dug in, and if there was any doubt about the depth of their side the answer came when substitutes Liam Dunne and Padrek Linehin were among the scorers, with the Metropolitans conceding the game and scoring four points.

Dublin: Eddie Gibbons (1-2 freezes); Tommy Kinnain, Andrew Dunfi, Ian O’Hair; Enda O’Donnell, Kevin Burke, Donald Levy (0-1); Mark Sweeney (0-1), Darag Power; Darak McBride (0-1), Michelle Murphy, Luke McDwire; Billy Ryan, Alex O’Neill, Liam Murphy (0-10, 5F65). Subs:

Subs: M. Murphy (H / T) Kevin Redmond (0-2), Ryan (44), Liam Dunne (0-1), Ciaran Foley (59) for O’Neill, Padrick Linehin (0-1), Power (55) and Pierce Christie. For O’Haitir (59)

Wexford: James Lawler; Cian Molloy, Sam Odysley, Joe Conroy; David Code (0-1), Niall Murphy, Diarmoid Keho; Conor Mahoney (0-1), Josh Sheil; Luke Cavanaugh, Conal Clancy, Richie Lawler; Sean O’Connor (0-2), Rose Banville (0-6, 4 free), James Byrne. Subs:

Subs: Byron Glenn Murphy (1-0), Schielin AJ Redmond (37), Mosi Mosi Murphy (50), Cavanagh Darag Furlong (51), Cormac Cooney for Lawler (62).

Referee: Sean Clear (Kilkenny)