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Lithuania 0 Republic of Ireland 5
16-year-old Dubliner Stokes (pictured), a sometime trainer with the first-team Gunners, netted twice in four minutes as Sean McCaffrey's side ran out easy winners in their final Group 3 game.
Needing a good win to qualify, the Irish opened the scoring on 16 minutes as St Joseph's striker Alan Judge - a son of Bray Wanderers' 1990 FAI Cup winning captain Dermot Judge - scored. Eddie Nolan made it two from the penalty spot seven minutes later.
Stokes produced two quality strikes on 55 and 58 minutes to edge the Republic 4-0 clear, and Judge deservedly claimed a fifth on the hour.
Germany topped the group following a 1-0 win over Iceland, but McCaffrey's men grabbed second to go through to next Spring's second phase, where England will be among their group rivals.
Afterwards, McCaffrey praised his young side: "They were exceptional against both Germany (1-1) and Lithuania today, and were a credit to themselves both on and off the pitch this week.
"They showed their class and I can't praise them highly enough. I'm very pleased to see them go through."