Offaly And Laois Progress In Leinster U20 Hurling Championship

Westmeath and Carlow bow out. hurl

Offaly and Laois made the most of the final underage GAA fixtures for the foreseeable future to advance to the semi-finals of the Bord Gais Leinster U20 Hurling Championship. 

The closer game came in MW Hire O'Moore Park where a goal from Mark Hennessy gave Laois a 1-15 to 0-15 point win over Carlow. 

Trailing 0-12 to 0-10 at the water break in the second half, Laois needed someone to step up and Hennessy managed to grab the important score with a high drive into the top corner 12 minutes from time. 

They'll now go on to face Galway at a date still to be determined but it's another step in the right direction for the underage structures in the O'Moore county. 

Meanwhile in the faithful fields Offaly continued their dominance over Westmeath at underage level. 

The Faithful county lost three starters before a puck was made but it didn't deter them in the slightest. Westmeath might point to some wayward shooting in the first half which saw them rack up eight wides. 

Despite this, the lake county only trailed by three points at the break, 1-11 to 2-5. 

Luke O'Connor bagging the goal for Offaly while Danny McGrath and a penalty from Rory Keyes were the Westmeath goal-scorers.

The second half was where the damage was done, Offaly managed to double their score, Cathal O'Meara hitting the back of the net for a second time and Cathal Kiely racking up 12 points in total in an hours work. 

Westmeath kept plugging away to their credit but only managed to tick over 1-4 in the second half, losing by ten points, 2-22 to 3-9. 

Offaly advance to meet Dublin in the semi-finals. 

More from Sports

Download Our App