Belvedere College continued their impressive march towards another Leinster Schools' Junior Cup title with two tries from Kevin Barden seeing them through to the semi-final.
Belvedere in full-flight were very hard to contain and nearly went over for an early score with Michael McCarthy just failing to hold onto a pass from impressive centre Marcus McAllister.
St Michael's rarely got beyond the gain line in the first half and trailed to two Robert Hedigan penalties and a Barden try at half-time. But they turned things around after the break with two successful kicks from Peter McGibney taking them to within five points of their opponents with five minutes to go. Belvedere eventually managed to pull away with Barden and Harry Lacey both crossing the St Michael's line.
ST MICHAEL'S COLLEGE: F Kearney; T Diamond, S O'Hanlon, P McGibney, B Tolan; J O'Flanagan, J McKillen; R O'Neill, C Mullen, A Skeehan, W Hempenstall, C Smyth, R O'Boyle, S Hartigan, P Foley. Replacements: R Barrett for Tolan (48 mins), B Greer for Skeehan (65 mins), K CLarke for Kearney (78 mins).
BELVEDERE COLLEGE: K Barden; M McCarthy, M McAllister, C Hayes, D Keane; R Hedigan, B O'Neill; G Brennan, R Carson, E Weigel, H Lacey, M Walsh, R Fitzgerald, R Armstrong, B Kennedy. Replacements: H Mahon for Weigel, R McDonald for Armstrong (65 mins).
Referee: D Woods (ARLB).
