Sigerson Cup final: DCU 1-16 UCD 3-6
A four-point margin of victory in the end, but DCU were much more dominant than that at the Connacht COE last night, where they overwhelmed their city rivals with a devastating performance in the second half of the Sigerson Cup final.
Darragh McElearney’s stoppage-time goal took the bleak look off the scoreboard for UCD, but up to that point they had been comprehensively outplayed by their opponents, who lorded the middle third of the field and were able to move the ball forward much more quickly and effectively.
An early goal for Ryan O’Toole undid DCU’s solid start, where points from Greg McEneaney and Ethan Dunne gave the underdogs a real confidence boost.
John Divilly’s side began to get some good possession with Luke Breathnach, Cormac Egan and in particular Callum Bolton influential around the middle third, but they were undone by some poor shots and shot choices up front, with the Roscommon duo of Daire Cregg and Ben O’Carroll struggling to emulate their strong form from the earlier rounds of the competition.
Breathnach was incisive and he got on the board with one score while assisting another for Theo Clancy, but the cracks were appearing and it was DCU who were taking much more high-percentage shots.
Scores from Conor Heffernan and Niall Dolan nudged the northside university into the lead early in the second half and they suddenly had a five-point advantage when Dunne took a solid shoulder and stood up to fire a low shot inside Killian Roche’s near post seven minutes into the second half.
Callum Bolton responded in kind to give UCD a lifeline but by now it was a landslide in the middle of the field, and the DCU attack were assisted by a steady stream of quick ball that turned into good scores for Tom Prior, Darragh Swords and Lorcan O’Dell, ultimately yielding a run of five unanswered scores.
The UCD attack continued to be clogged up and unable to get clean looks at goal, and their wide count continued to mount, meaning that by the time Darragh McElearney got his fist to an Aaron Lynch shot to punch in their third goal, DCU’s sixth win and their first since 2020 was never going to be derailed.
DCU: E McGuinness; B Masterson, L Glennon, A Gavin; E O’Connor-Flanagan (0-1); R Gallagher, C Caulfield (0-1); E Dunne (1-2), C Heffernan (0-1); N Dolan (0-1), C Dolan, G McEneaney (0-1); T Prior (0-3), R Donoghue, L Marren (0-2, two frees).
SUBS: L O’Dell (0-1) for Dolan (34), D Swords (0-3, one free) for Donoghue (36), J McGroddy for Dolan (50), J Tumulty for Marren (55).
Scorers for UCD: C Bolton 1-2, R O’Toole 1-0, D McElearney 1-0, D Cregg 0-2f, T Clancy 0-1, L Breathnach 0-1.
UCD: K Roche; M Stone, D McElearney (1-0), T Clancy (0-1); C McMorrow, C Drumm, R O’Toole (1-0); C Bolton (1-2), P Duffy; M McNally, L Breathnach (0-1), C Egan; D Cregg (0-2, two frees), B O’Carroll, A Lynch.
SUBS: S Callinan for McNally (h-t), P Honeyman for O’Carroll (44), D Moriarty for McMorrow (44), S Forker for Egan (48), L Costello for Duffy (57).
Referee: S Hurson (Tyrone).
