Holders UCD completed a historic four consecutive Irish Universities Harding Cup wins with a convincing 3-2 defeat of UCC in the decider at Belfield.
It’s the first time this feat has been achieved since the competition for Freshers was established in 1970 by the late Dr Tony O’Neill.
The Cork side got off to the perfect start with a Brian O’Mahony goal in the opening minutes.
That early set back failed to deter UCD and they quickly got back on level terms when Kevin Sweeney stirred home the equaliser.
Then two further quality goals from skipper Hugh Smith before half time gave UCD a 3-1 advantage.
After the break UCD were comfortably managing the game but they still failed to really kill off with any further goals.
UCC kept battling away and they were rewarded with Denzil Ogbene’s goal in the closing minutes that led to some anxious minutes of time added on for the Belfield Freshers.
That equaliser failed to materialise thanks to some brilliant defending by Eoin Cunningham who managed to keep out UCC striker Ogbene and usher the ball safely back to goalkeeper Karl Andrade.
Rob Barry; Eoin Howell, Sam Bailey, Evan Lynch, Oisin Twohig; Ben O’Connell, Noah Sowinski; Jayden Adair-Bell, Brian O’Mahony, Dara Walsh; Denzel Ogbene.
Finn Bond-Smith, Javier Seirano, Sean Nolan, Jack Brady, Daniel McCarthy.
Karl Andrade; Eoin Maher, Eoin Sheeran, Eoin Cunningham, Sam Neville; Leo Healy, Jack O’Flaherty; Dino Costin, Eoghan Murphy, Kevin Sweeney; Hugh Smith.
Liam Burke, Aidan Kane, Alex Dunne, Aidan Colleran, Coleman King.
David Gallagher (Dublin).
