Wexford players Paddy O’ Neill and Jack Sheridan pictured after victory over Laois in the Electric Ireland Leinster Minor Hurling Championship.
Electric Ireland Leinster minor hurling championship quarter-finals
Dublin 7-17 Westmeath 2-18
Wexford 0-22 Laois 1-15
By Paul Keane
Sean Culleton was to the fore again for Dublin with a stunning hat-trick in Raharney to help secure their Electric Ireland Leinster MHC semi-final place.
With holders Kilkenny and Galway already through to next weekend's last four games, Dublin joined them with an emphatic seven-goal win over Westmeath while Wexford took care of Laois elsewhere.
Dublin, beaten by Kilkenny in last year's Leinster final, lost all three of their Tier 1 group games so were desperate to impress and had this quarter-final almost wrapped up by half-time.
They took off in the second quarter of the game when Rory Flannery, Culleton and Conaill O'Sullivan all netted to help the visitors to lead by 3-9 to 0-6 at the interval.
Westmeath had started well and were 0-4 to 0-2 ahead at the quarter hour mark before being heavily outscored.
The Lake County had won all four of their Tier 2, Group 2 games, and then dispatched Carlow in a preliminary quarter-final last weekend, so came into this one with strong momentum.
But they were broken by that Dublin goal siege and the Sky Blues kept the hammer down after the break too, netting four more times.
O'Sullivan grabbed his second goal immediately after the restart and Christian Kane added a fifth for Dublin in the 43rd minute.
Culleton's second and third goals came in the 47th and 52nd minutes, either side of Westmeath's first goal which was scored by Conor Williams.
Free-taker Williams struck 1-10 in total, all from placed balls, while Mikey Devine finished with 1-1 for Westmeath and added his goal right at the death.
It was no more than consolation at that stage as Dublin were already eyeing the semi-finals.
It was far tighter for Wexford who needed a late series of scores to shrug off a determined Laois in Portlaoise.
Sean O'Brien has been immense for Wexford in this season's minor championship and delivered for his county again with a dozen points overall.
He struck seven of those in an evenly contested first-half that finished level, 0-11 to 1-8.
Conor Headen registered the Laois goal in the 11th minute and it wasn't until the 25th minute that Wexford took the lead for the first time through Jamie Kennedy.
O'Brien, Eoghan Kinsella and Kennedy added third quarter points for Wexford but Tier 2, Group 2 winners Laois, who hit Offaly for 7-23 in a devastating preliminary quarter-final display last weekend, refused to relent.
The O'Moore County took the lead again with just 10 minutes to go, 1-14 to 0-16, when Tony Mahony boomed over a long-range free.
Wexford had retained a strong kick for the last lap though and reeled off six of the game's last seven points to win with some to spare.
Jamie Downey, the excellent O'Brien, Eoghan Whelan, Laurence Cloke and Joey Tobin all came up trumps with Wexford scores just when required.
