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A tremendous final at Kingspan Breffni, which included points from current Player of the Year Ciaran Archer, secured Dublin’s return to the final of the EirGrid All-Ireland U20 Soccer Championship.
Tom Gray’s team appeared to be in trouble as they trailed by two points in the second water break after being four short on a stage late in the first half.
But Ireland’s 2019 runner-up bounced back magnificently in the fourth quarter, beating Tyrone 0-05-0-01 to take his place in next Saturday’s decider.
St Maur forward Archer was excellent in 2019 and finished that campaign with 10-35 under his belt, and his 0-06 run here brings his 2020 tally to 1-23 out of five games.
Brian O’Leary, a finalist last year but injured during this year’s Leinster Championship, also played a key role at 1-01, while Mark Lavin’s two points in the second half were vital.
It was tough for Ulster champion Tyrone, who led by two at halftime and led by three on a stretch in the third quarter, only to suffer later as Dublin locked them in and eliminated score after scoreboard.
Tyrone left with a dozen from the team that lined up in Ulster’s final loss last March over Donegal.
Conal Devlin, Simon Garrity and Rory Donnelly were the three additions, while Dublin had five team alterations that beat Laois in the Leinster final.
O’Leary, a 2019 All-Ireland finalist, was paralyzed earlier this year along with Sean Lowry and Mark O’Leary, but all three started here.
Substitutes for the provincial final Conor Tyrrell and Adam Fearon also started for Dublin, although it was Lowry who had the immediate impact, opening the scoring for Dublin and tying the game at 0-01 each.
Powerful forward Luke Swan, a talented dual player, played on O’Leary with a deft forward pass in the 12th minute and Na Fianna’s attacker slipped a low shot into the net.
That left the Dubs 1-02-0-02 ahead, though Tyrone took over from there and posted 1-04 with no response between minutes 16-24.
Darragh Canavan scored points with both feet in this period and Tiarnan Quinn scored Tyrone’s goal in the 19th minute to put them 1-04 to 1-03 ahead.
Garrity set up the scoring opportunity with a clever left-handed pass to Donnelly, whose shot was blocked by the Dublin goalkeeper, but Quinn followed up and fumbled the ball into the net.
Ethan Jordan’s point in the 24th minute opened up a four-point lead for Tyrone, but Archer’s back-to-back points just before the interval were significant for Dublin, leaving them just 1-07 to 1-05 down.
That margin was reduced to a minimum just seconds after the restart when Archer plummeted for his third, this time from a free win by O’Leary.
Both sides exchanged three points in the third quarter as a scoring pattern of Tyrone and Dublin responding in kind.
O’Leary and Archer’s Dublin points narrowed the gap to just one twice and back-to-back champions Leinster finally tied in the 54th minute at 1-12 each through Lorcan O’Dell.
Dublin had clear momentum now and the wind advantage as well and floated over two beauties Archer and Lee Gannon to take control of the proceedings and ultimately seal a two-point victory.
Dublin: Josh O’Neill; Conor Tyrrell, Adam Rafter, Josh Bannon; Mark O’Leary, Adam Waddick, Lee Gannon (0-01); Adam Fearon, Sean Foran; Mark Lavin (0-03), Lorcan O’Dell (0-02), Sean Lowry (0-01); Ciaran Archer (0-06, 0-03f), Luke Swan, Brian O’Leary (1-01).
Subs used: Evan Caulfield for Fearon (10-14 blood minutes), Rory Dwyer for Foran (ht), Kieran McKeon for Fearon (42 minutes), Padraig Purcell for Lowry (62 minutes).
Tyrone: Lorcan Quinn; Conal Devlin, Cormac Munroe, Cormac Quinn; Antoin Fox, Michael Gallagher, James McCann; Kevin Barker, Rory Donnelly; Tom Donaghy, Tiarnan Quinn (1-03, 0-02f), Ethan Jordan (0-05, 0-03f, 0-01 45); Darragh Canavan (0-03, 0-01m), Simon Garrity (0-01), Matthew Murnaghan.
Subs used: Ryan Jones for Donaghy (28 minutes), Mark Hayes for Garrity (43 minutes), Joe Oguz for Barker (48 minutes), Liam Gray for Donnelly (58 minutes).
Referee: Barry Judge (Sligo).
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