Louth were knocked out of the O'Byrne Cup by an impressive Dublin City University team which saw Connor Mortimer and Seanie Johnston contribute nine points between them. DCU 1-14 Louth 0-11 Cavan's Johnston recorded the first three points of the contest as the college side took early command of the game at Darver with Louth struggling to create clear cut chances. David Kelly and Mortimer added two more points to give DCU a five point lead with little over ten minutes gone and at that stage Louth looked to be in real trouble, as they appeared to ring rusty. Louth rallied with scores from Padraig Matthews and Brian White but DCU hit back with a flury of points and led by 0-10 to 0-3 at the short whistle. That advantage was stretched even further on the restart as Martin McElhinney was on target as DCU went ten points clear but Eammon McEneaney's charges finally found their form and slowly got back into contention. A Mark Stanfield point started something of a mini-revival as five successive points, thanks to Ronan Carroll (2), Brian White (2) and Dessie Finnegan saw just four points separate the teams. The home crowd were in good voice and thought that a miraculous comeback might be on the cards but their hopes were shattered when Cathal Cregg goaled near the end to give the students the win their play deserved. DCU - C Munnelly; P Andrews, D Sheridan, D Mooney; R Flanagan 0-1, free, K Leahy, M McElhinney 0-1; F O'Reilly, C Cucken; D Keenan, S Smith 0-2, C Cregg 1-0; S Johnston 0-5, 2 frees, C Mortimer 0-4, 2 frees, D Kelly 0-1. Subs - K Nolan for Cucken, C Rogers for Mortimer, D Walsh for Johnston, W Mulhall for Leahy, B Sheridan for O'Reilly. Louth - S Connor; A Page, M Fanning, B McArdle; D Finnegan 0-1, C McGuinness, R Finnegan; R Carroll 0-2, P Mallon; A Reid, E Carroll, JJ Quigley; B White 0-4, 2 frees, M Stanfield 0-2, 1 free, P Matthews 0-1. Subs - J Murray for Reid, J Neary for Page, D Clarke 0-1 for Quigley, B Donnelly for Mallon, K White for E Carroll. Ref - P Daly (Westmeath) Tweet

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