The Galway Minor Camogie team is sitting at the top of the table in the Electric Ireland Minor A Championship after they recorded their third win in the championship, keeping their unbeaten record intact.
The girls recorded a five-point victory - 1-16 to 0-11 - over Dublin on Sunday in TUD Grangegorman to book their place in the knockout stages of the championship with games against Tipperary and Cork still to play.
Dublin almost scored a goal in the opening two minutes from a superb delivery into Saoirse Behan, but her shot was stopped by Caoimhe Hickey in the Galway net. However, Aoibheann Stokes opened the scoring for Dublin two minutes later with a free. Caoimhe Kelly replied with two well-taken points from play before Stokes brought the sides level again on the 10th minute.
Aoibheann Barry replied with her first score from play to give Galway the lead heading to the midway point of the half. Galway’s scoring spree continued as the managed to keep Dublin scoreless for the remainder of the half. Kelly (0-2 ), Alannah Fahy (0-2 ), Barry (0-1F ) all added points in the final 12 minutes of the half for Galway, while in the 27th minute Sophie Flynn scored Galway’s only goal of the game.
A long ball in from Massey was batted down for the oncoming Flynn to pulled on the ball on the ground and into the back of the Dublin net, extending Galway's lead to 1-8 to 0-2 at half-time.
Stokes delivered a much-needed score for Dublin on 23 minutes with her third free before exchanging scores with Fahy from play, before Barry added her third point .
However, Dublin kept in touch through a Stokes' free and Zara Thorne from play to close the gap to 1-10 to 0-6 heading into the final 15 minutes.
Flynn for Galway and Dublin substitute Anna Thornton swapped scores before a Stokes 45 and a well-taken score from substitute Eimear Kehoe reduced the deficit to six with nine minutes of normal time.
Barry settled the ship for Galway, however, in the 53rd minute with two quick-fire frees before Stokes and Barry exchanged frees again.
Keogh almost scored a goal near the end of the game, but her shot was deflected out for a 45 by McGrath who scored her second point of the day just before the final whistle.
In the end it was a comfortable win for Galway who head into their final two group games having already qualified for the knockout stages of the championship.
Ava Crowe, Katie Scully, Ciara McGrath, Aoibheann Barry, Caoimhe Kelly and Alannah Fahy were some of Galway’s top performers, while Milly Hughes, Aoibheann Stokes, Zara Thorne and Anna Thornton tried hard for Dublin. Up next is a trip to The Ragg on Sunday at 2pm when they face Tipperary in their round four game.
Galway: C Hickey, K Coleman, A Crowe, K Scully, G Leen, C McGrath, Z Rogers, K Madden, A Massey, A Barry (0-6, 0-3F ), S Carr, C O’Meara, C Kelly (0-4 ), A Fahy (0-3 ), S Flynn (1-1 ). Subs: A Joyce for Rogers (36 ), L Nic Dhonncha for Leen (41 ), H Tarpey for Carr (44 ), A Collins for Massey (48 ), S Mullins for Flynn (51 ), L Murphy for Madden (56 ).
Dublin :M Farrell, C Tierney, S Cherry, A Byrne, M Hughes, N Cotter, N Brennan, Z Thorne (0-2 ), A Kenny, A Stokes (0-7, 0-6F, 0-1 45m ), A Simpson, S Behan, S Power, H Reynolds, A Carey.Subs: K Austin for Simpson (15 ), A Thornton (0-1 ) for Behan (HT ), E Kehoe (0-1 ) for Carey (38 ), C French for Reynolds (58 ).
