Donegal are through to the 2017 Ulster U21 football championship final following a devastating double-scores victory over Cavan at Brewster Park, 3-17 to 0-13.

This semi-final was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch in Enniskillen seven days ago but tonight it was raining Tir Chonail scores as second-half goals from Cian Mulligan, Michael Carroll and substitute Caolan McGonagle helped propel Declan Bonner's men through to next Monday's provincial decider, wherein they will face neighbours Derry, who beat Armagh after extra time in tonight's other 'semi'.

With a run of ten unanswered points between the sixth and 25^th minutes, the highly-impressive winners wrested control of this match during the opening period, taking a commanding 0-13 to 0-6 advantage into the break. Donegal scored 13 points from as many attempts before the interval.

Centre forward Connor Bradley had the Breffni boys ahead inside 22 seconds but quickfire replies from midfielder Michael Langan and Stephen McBrearty - a late addition to the starting XV - had the victors ahead two minutes later. Caoimhin O'Reilly (free) and Ryan Connolly (free) edged Cavan back ahead by three points to two after five minutes - as good as it got for them…

Lorcan Connor had the teams on terms for the third time with six minutes left and he converted his second successive free on nine before county senior  Mulligan pointed to leave two between them for the first time. It was double scores after ten minutes, 0-6 to 0-3, Connor nailing his third free of the night.

Langan swept over a free from the deck for the Tir Chonail men's fifth consecutive score and McBrearty made it 0-8 to 0-3 after 15 minutes. Connor added his fourth free in the 16^th minute; McBrearty his third from play in the 18^th; midfielder Carroll got in on the act in the 21^st - 0-11 to 0-3.

Carroll's point was cancelled out by Connolly and Connor's by Bryan McGee before O'Reilly closed the first-half scoring from a 28^th-minute Cavan free.

Donegal didn't record a wide until the 36^th minute and by then they had eased eleven points ahead: Mulligan drilled a low shot to the corner Cavan net 45 seconds after the restart and No.9 Langan followed up with a lovely score from play 60 seconds later - 1-14 to 0-6. Connor clipped over a free in the 38^th minute and the gap was 13 when McBrearty added to his tally ten minutes into the second half.

Cavan got two of the next three points but Carroll palmed the ball to the net at the three-quarters stage to increase the gap to 14, 2-16 to 0-8.

As the game started to fizzle out, Connolly and Niall O'Donnell traded frees and O'Reilly (two frees) mustered another couple of consolations either side of a Cavan point from wing back Sean O'Connor as Donegal switched off with their minds seemingly already on Monday's decider. Still, in the 29^th minute, Cavan's net billowed once more as McGonagle popped up to make it 3-17 to 0-12.

Substitute David Brady had the distinction of closing the scoring on a night that Cavan won't remember too fondly as Donegal were a vastly superior outfit and will be fancied to win the Ulster final against their neighbours in five days' time and perhaps go on to give Dublin a run for their money in the All-Ireland series on Saturday week.

Donegal - D Rodgers; C Morrison, S McMenamin, B McCole; C Mulligan (1-1), D O Baoill, E Ban Gallagher; J McGee, T McClenaghan; C McLaughlin, S McBrearty (0-4), M Carroll (1-2); L Connor (0-6, 5f), M Langan (0-3, 1f), J Brennan. Subs: C Doherty for C McLaughlin, N O'Donnell (0-1f) for S McBrearty, C McGonagle (1-0) for M Carroll (BC), E O'Donnell for M Langan, R Carr for L Connor, N Friel for T McClenaghan.

Cavan - L Brady; M Smart, D Monahan, L Fortune; S O'Connor (0-1), E Sommerville, P O'Reilly; T Galligan, C Daly; P Smith, C Bradley (0-1), M McKenna; C O'Reilly (0-5f), B Magee (0-1), R Connolly (0-4, 3f). Subs: C Smith for M McKenna, B Argue for P O'Reilly, D Brady (0-1) for P Smith, C Reilly for C Daly, T E Donohoe for B Magee, R Clarke for C Bradley.

Referee - S Laverty.

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