Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup quarter-finals round Up:

by GAA Website

St Mary’s College 0-15 Maynooth University 0-13

UCC 4-21 IT Carlow 0-5

UCD 2-16 DCU 1-9

NUI Galway 1-8 UU 1-7

St Mary’s College, Belfast, 2017 winners of the Sigerson Cup, qualified for this year’s semi-finals in Mallow where they will face defending champions UCD, following their impressive win against Maynooth University.

Shane McGuigan kicked five points for the Antrim students, who turned a one-point half-time deficit into a four-point lead by the 37th minute, which proved the key time in the match.

With 11 minutes remaining Maynooth University had erased that lead thanks to Padraig Fogarty, Pa Brophy and Stephen O’Hanlon, but they were unable to sustain that effort to the finish and points from McGuigan, Colm Byrne and Niall Toner got St Mary’s across the line.

Both teams had a player sent off in the lengthy added-time, but despite a late free to put two points between the sides, Maynooth ran out of time.

Liam Devlin and Liam Rafferty pointed to put St Mary’s into the lead early on, but they also kicked four wides by half-time, which allowed Maynooth to lead 0-8 to 0-7 at half-time thanks to Fogarty and O’Halon, who kicked nine points between them over the 60 minutes.

But after the restart two McGuigan points and one each from Ryan Coleman and Stephen McConville pushed St Mary’s clear, while Maynooth’s inaccuracy meant they couldn’t cash in enough when they were dominant midway through the second-half.

Meanwhile, UCD had little trouble taking the next step towards the defence of their title and claimed a win in the Dublin derby against DCU.

UCD got off to a flying start at Dave Billings Park in Belfield and after five minutes’ play they held a 1-2 to 0-0 lead. Points from Barry McGinn and Conor McCarthy were followed by a penalty from Evan O’Carroll.

But after Micheál Bannigan got DCU off the mark, a couple of frees from David Garland kept them in touch. Garland rattled the top corner of the UCD net with a brilliant goal after 20 minutes, but O’Carroll from a free and then from play kept UCD in the ascendancy and 1-8 to 1-6 at half-time.

O’Carroll kept the scoreboard ticking after the break, while a goal from Cian O’Connor, three points from Dublin senior Darren Gavin and three more O’Carroll efforts – he scored 1-8 for his side – qualified them for the last four.

Elsewhere, UCC continued with their incredible run of scoring with a 4-21 to 0-5 romp against IT Carlow at the Mardyke.

After putting 7-26 past Athlone IT in Round 1, UCC will fancy a shot at claiming their first Sigerson Cup since 2013 after this performance, with a semi-final in Co Cork against NUI Galway to come on Saturday week.

Goal number one came for Paudie Clifford after just five minutes, and just before half-time Clifford stuck UCC’s second – he scored a hat-trick in their opening game – and the Cork students worked their way into a 2-14 to 0-2 lead by the break.

The one-way traffic continued after half-time with Sean O’Shea in superb form, and late on Colin Horgan wrapped a most impressive win for the Cork students.

NUI Galway are back in the semi-finals for the second year in a row, but they needed the late heroics of Peter Cooke to get them over the line against University of Ulster.

Despite getting off to a great start NUI Galway only held a one-point lead at the interval, 1-4 to 1-3 in a quarter-final played at Abbotstown.

A free from Cooke also got NUIG off the mark, while a goal from Kieran Molloy after 13 minutes was added to by Jack Robinson to give his side a 1-3 to 0-2 lead.

Jordanstown managed to steady their challenge with a goal from Daire Gallagher in the minutes before half-time, and with Lee Brennan busy at corner-forward the teams were level on three occasions in the second half, only for points from Stephen Brennan and Cooke to see NUI Galway into the last four.

Semi-finals Saturday 16 February in Mallow:

UCC v NUI Galway

St Mary’s College v UCD