Laois enjoyed a big win over Offaly in the Electric Ireland Leinster Minor Hurling Championship.
Electric Ireland Leinster minor hurling championship
Tier 1, Round 3
Kilkenny 2-25 Dublin 0-18
Galway 3-24 Wexford 1-18
Preliminary quarter-finals
Westmeath 1-19 Carlow 0-11
Laois 7-23 Offaly 0-13
By Paul Keane
Holders Kilkenny are through to the Electric Ireland Leinster minor hurling championship semi-finals, the young Cats advancing as Tier 1 winners.
Jake Mullen impressed again for Kilkenny with 1-7 as the visitors led Dublin virtually from pillar to post at O'Toole Park.
Mullen's goal came in the third minute, from a penalty, and put Kilkenny into a lead that they maintained and embellished to win handsomely.
Mullen, younger brother of senior star Adrian, struck the majority of his scores from placed balls while Ollie O'Donovan thrilled in open play, firing 1-3.
O'Donovan's 26th minute goal doubled Kilkenny's lead from three to six at that stage and they retained that advantage at half-time, 2-11 to 0-11.
Free-taker Rory Flannery sniped six of Dublin's first-half points, an 0-12 in total, while Christian Kane, Sean Culleton, Finn O'Donnell, Luke Hayes and Conaill O'Sullivan were also on the mark.
But they needed a powerful second-half performance and at least one goal to reel Kilkenny in.
It never arrived and Kilkenny pulled further clear with a burst of four points in a row between the 36th and 44th minutes before hitting three-in-a-row on two occasions in the final quarter.
Kilkenny had a dozen different scorers in total with Ben Nevin, Diarmuid Behan and Brian Hickey pointing late on before a brace of scores from Cian Byrne.
Kilkenny, beaten in last year's All-Ireland final, will contest a semi-final on May 17. All is not lost for Dublin who have still qualified for a quarter-final and they will take on Westmeath.
Galway will join Kilkenny in the province's last four after locking down second position in the Tier 1 table following their 12-point defeat of Wexford.
Three Gus Lohan points helped Galway to lead at half-time but it was a narrow 0-13 to 1-9 advantage as Sean O'Brien had registered 1-7 in that period for Wexford.
Galway moved into overdrive after the break with three goals in the third quarter to head to the semis with momentum on their side.
Westmeath will be feeling positive too ahead of their Dublin date next weekend after their big win over Carlow.
Padraig Monaghan struck a 21st minute goal, putting the Lake County 1-6 to 0-4 ahead at that stage though they were only 1-7 to 0-8 up at half-time.
Free-taker Thomas Sheehan was Carlow's principal scorer while James Brennan wrapped up the first-half scoring for the Barrowsiders.
Carlow only added three more points in the second-half, however, as Brendan McKeogh's Westmeath pulled decisively clear.
Laois were at their ease in this evening's final preliminary quarter-final, hitting neighbours Offaly for a whopping 7-23.
Their reward is a quarter-final clash next weekend with Wexford who will undoubtedly be wary of the O'Moore County's goal threat.
Daniel Jones has proven a real goal threat in this year's championship and he landed a first-half hat-trick of goals this time, netting in the fifth, ninth and 23rd minutes as Offaly were cut asunder.
Dan Downey and Tom Og Phelan raised green flags too as Laois hit the interval in Portlaoise with a giant 5-13 to 0-8 20-point advantage.
Conor Headen's goal after the restart stretched the gap to 23 and Eoin Delaney was in seventh heaven when he landed their last goal in the 54th minute.
