UCC progress sealed as Lawless doubles up

Holders UCC continued their charge towards another Collingwood Cup as they scored a comfortable 4-0 win over a disappointing NUI Galway yesterday.

Paul Lawless hit two and Rob Waters and Kyle O’Shea added the others to allow manager John Caulfield the opportunity to give all his substitutes a run ahead of today’s semi-final against Mary Immaculate.

Noel O’Connor sprung a surprise on hosts UL when his Mary Immaculate College charges claimed a 2-1 win with two second-half goals from John Hutton and Cormac Crowe to cancel out Declan O’Donnell’s header just before the break in the all-Limerick clash.

Royal College of Surgeons made history as they reached the semi-finals for the first time.

The Surgeons followed up their narrow 1-0 first round win over Dublin University by knocking out University of Ulster Jordanstown 4-3 on penalties after their quarter-final tie finished scoreless after extra time.

Goalkeeper Jamie Clerkin proved to be the Surgeons’ hero, pulling off a fine save to keep out Mark Kelly in normal time and then producing two fine saves during the penalty shootout to set up Jamie Phillips to hit the match-winning penalty.

Surgeons will now meet UCD in today’s semi-final after the Belfield outfit beat Maynooth 3-1 after extra time.