Four goals in the last seven minutes gave Laois a 5-13 to 1-13 victory over Wicklow at Portlaoise.
The visitors were on the verge of a surprise result when Cormac O'Shea's three-pointer tied the scores up in the 53rd minute but nobody could have predicted what would happen next in his losers group, second-round fixture: Laois went into turbo mode to close out the match with goals from Jake Foster, hat-trick hero Sean Moore (2) and Brian Byrne as they booked a quarter-final date with Kildare.
The home side led by four points at the end of a hard-fought first half, 0-11 to 0-7, with the impressive Moore helping himself to seven of those opening-period scores.
A Moore brace put the O'Moore County ahead by 0-2 to 0-1 after four minutes and a second Moore brace made it 0-5 to 0-3, with Foster having notched the third Laois point.
The battling Garden County were level by the 22nd minute, 0-6 each, but further efforts from Moore and Cathal Dunne restored the midlanders' two-point cushion before Aaron Dowling and Colm Murphy struck the final scores before the break.
Man of the Match Moore registered the first of his three goals ten minutes into the second half to make it 1-12 to 0-10 and Wicklow then produced an impressive spell of football before their hosts despatched them with aplomb.
Laois - J Walshe; J Kelly, F Flanagan, D Feane; C Behan, R Piggott, S Whelan; S Smyth, C Dunne (0-1); B Byrne (1-1), C Murphy (0-1), A Dowling (0-1); S Moore (3-8, 0-3f), B Daly, J Foster (1-1). Subs: D Aston for B Daly, D Doyle for F Flanagan, A McEvoy for A Dowling.
Wicklow - D Byrne; S Kernan, C O'Brien, L Kinsella; D Walsh, E Murtagh, C Kenny (0-1); E Baker, M Shannon; P Byrne, G Allen (0-1), C O'Shea (1-0); C Byrne (0-7, 4f), A Dillon (0-2, 1f), P O'Connor (0-2). Subs: J Cotter for D Walsh, C Kelly for G Allen, S Connor for L Kinsella, P Manning for M Shannon.
Referee - C Dwyer.
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