Early season silverware for Cork U20s

[team1]Cork[/team1][score1]2-14[/score1][team2]Kildare[/team2][score2]1-12[/score2][/score]

Cork showed that they are in fine shape to defend their U20 All-Ireland title after they defeated Kildare in the John Kerins Cup final.

Two of the heroes of last year’s team Blake Murphy and Mark Cronin tormented the Lilywhites in Callan on Saturday.

The early stages were tightly contested but Cronin (3), Conor Russell, and Brian Hayes put Cork 0-7 to 0-4 ahead.

Kildare came back in the game in the last minutes of the half and the impressive Shane O’Sullivan scored twice in a row before Cronin set up Murphy to goal — 1-7 to 0-6.

Cork took charge on the restart and scored five points in a row.

Murphy raced away to score his second goal midway through the second half though O’Sullivan did raise a late green flag as a consolation.

Scorers for Cork: B Murphy 2-2 (0-1 f), M Cronin 0-6 (0-1 f), B Hayes 0-2, D O’Connell 0-1, F Herlihy 0-1, K Twomey 0-1, C Russell 0-1 (mark).

Scorers for Kildare: S O’Sullivan 1-7 (0-5 f), D Kirwan 0-3, L Griffin 0-1, P McDermott 0-1.

CORK: J O’Keeffe; C O’Shea, D O’Mahoney, D Phelan; C O’Sullivan, S Desmond, B Lynch; B Hayes, J Lawton; D O’Connell, M Cronin, F Herlihy; K Twomey, B Murphy, C Russell.

Subs: E Lehane for Desmond, 26; A Ó Luasa for Russell, h/t; D Hayes for Twomey, h/t; G O’Sullivan for Herlihy, 40; C Nyhan for Lawton, 52.

KILDARE: K Costello; J Hamill, J Lawler, S Moore, DJ Earley, J Collins, A Conneely; D McDermott, T O’Connor; A Beirne, D Kirwan, F Nairn; L Griffin, S O’Sullivan, P Behan.

Subs: A Browne for Beirne, h/t; P McDermott for Earley, h/t; J Sargent for Hamill, h/t; M Cully for Griffin, 49; A Browne for Adam Conneely, 49.

Referee: Chris Dwyer, Offaly.

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