Moate CS ... 1-9 St Mary's, Mullingar ... 1-6 The individual brilliance of James Coughlan of Moate CS was the primary reason his side advanced to the next round of the Leinster Colleges senior football championship in Mullingar yesterday.

Lining out at full forward, Coughlan tormented St Mary's CBS, and scored five superb points as his side progressed to meet St Mel's, Longford, in the next round.

The sides looked to be quite evenly matched early on and it was level pegging at the quarter-mark stage with St Mary's heavily reliant on the accuracy of free-taker Fiachra Spellman and most scores coming from Peter Smith and Coughlan.

After Seán Maguire restored the St Mary's lead, the visitors clicked into top gear and fired over four unanswered points.

Having turned over with a two- point advantage, Coughlan pushed Moate further ahead in the third minute of the second half. St Mary's raised their game and Dwayne and Maguire narrowed the gap to the minimum before the latter set up substitute Michael Boyle for a goal in the 16th minute.

It was a lead which St Mary's hardly deserved and the more purposeful Moate side hit back in the 20th minute when Danny Fox beat goalkeeper Darragh Ryan to a Peter Smith lob to score Moate's goal. A delightful sideline kick from Coughlan rounded off the scoring and ensured Moate's safe passage.

MOATE CS: K Higgins; J Buckley, E Kavanagh, J Bastic; A Kelly, D Ledwith, D Donoghue; P Smith (0-1), D Egan (0-1); D Adamson, A Mullen, A Kelly; J Higgins (0-2), J Coughlan (0-5), D Fox (1-0). Subs: J Stone for Donoghue; D Keenan for Mullen;

ST MARY'S CBS: D Ryan; A Purcell, M McLoughlin, W Coyne; D Bell, D McGuinness, A Gordon; S Maguire (0-2), D Maher (0-1); A Heduvan, J Ahern, S Moran; F Spellman (0-2), M Curley, R Price (0-1). Subs: M Boyle (1-0) for Bell; D Moore for Ahern; C Clinton for Moore.

Referee: J Bannon (Longford).