It's difficult to figure out who was more surprised by Catholic Institute's 3-0 win over holders Pegasus II in Saturday's Irish Junior Cup quarter-final, the winners or the losers. "We were in shock, we just stood around looking at each other at the end, we couldn't believe it," said Institute's Elaine Bromell.
But they didn't, in fact it proved to be a comfortable afternoon's work for the Limerick side who all but wrapped up the win 15 minutes into the second half when Edel Higgins made it 3-0.
Pegasus II were on the backfoot almost from the off, with Karen Downing giving the home team the lead after 10 minutes before Maureese Mannion doubled the advantage just before the break. After surviving an intense spell of pressure from Pegasus early in the second half Institute broke to add their third goal, delighting the sizeable crowd that turned out to support them.
Star of the show for Institute was Sheena Mannion who played at centre back for the team for the first time on Saturday because of the absence of pneumonia victim Gloria Koyce. Ballyclare, Three Rock Ladies and Enniscorthy join Institute in the semi-finals after beating Belvedere, Hermes III and Belfast Harlequins II, respectively. It wasn't all gloom and doom for Pegasus at the weekend - their first team took a giant leap towards retaining their Ulster Section One title when they beat second-placed Portadown 3-1 to move four points clear with a game in hand. More good news for coach Graham Quincey came in the form of the return from illness of Pamela Magill who scored Pegasus first goal. In Leinster, Hermes and Loreto were made to work harder than they might have expected by Glenanne and Railway Union but came good in the end, registering 5-0 and 4-0 wins respectively. Old Alexandra led Genesis 1-0 with just 15 minutes to go when frost and fading light forced the abandonment of the game. Pembroke Wanderers beat Muckross 4-1 to stay fourth in the table but the day's most entertaining game took place in Santry where a late goal from Hilda Maguire gave fourthplaced UCD a 1-0 win over Trinity.
