St Mel's ... 3-11 Moate CS ... 0-8 First-half goals from Longford minors Cian Cooney and Joe O'Brien in the space of a couple of minutes towards the end of the first half laid the foundations for victory in this Leinster Colleges senior A quarter-final at Pearse Park.

Between those crucial strikes, however,Moate were unlucky not to find the net when corner forward Adrian Kelly hit the butt of the post and the ball was cleared off the line by St Mel's corner back Niall Flynn.

The losers were then dealt a cruel blow when corner forward Danny Fox was handed a straight red card after an off-the-ball incident in stoppage time at the end of the half.

Trailing 2-4 to 0-4 at the break, Moate now faced an uphill battle and while they narrowed the gap with three points on the trot from their excellent full forward James Coughlan, St Mel's dominated the rest of the game.

Towering midfielder Cathal Quinn pointed in the 40th minute, and the Longford College added a further 1-6 before the end, five of the points coming from frees converted by the deadly accurate Joe O'Brien and the goal from substitute Joe McCormack with his first touch of the ball on 58 minutes.

St Mel's will now play St Joseph's of Rochfortbridge in the semi-final on March 9th.

St MEL'S: P Farrell, B Mahon, B McCormack, N Flynn, J Balfe, E Williams, D Rooney, B Guckian, C Quinn(0-2, 1f), A Murphy (0-1,f), C Cooney (1-0), M Tarmey, D Gibbons, J O'Brien (1-7, 0-5f), E Gallagher. Subs: S Donoghue for Rooney (inj 30 mins), C Williams (0-1) for Guckian (40 mins); T Dalton for Gallagher (57 mins); J McCormack (1-0) for Tarmey (58 mins).

MOATE CS: K Higgins, J Buckley, E Kavanagh, D Donoghue, A Kelly, D Ledwith, J Bastic, D Egan (0-1), P Smyth, J Higgins, A Mullen (0-1), D Adamson, D Fox, J Coughlan (0-6, 3f), A Kelly. Subs: J Molloy for Bastic (23 mins); K O'Brien for Molloy (inj 44mins).

Referee: Cormac Reilly (Meath)