Sigerson Cup quarter-finals:/Queens 1-10; St Mary's Belfast 1-9: Billie Joe Padden emerged as the hero yesterday as Queen's University overcame Belfast rivals St Mary's in their Sigerson Cup quarter-final battle at the Dub.

The home students qualified for the semi-finals with Padden sending over the winning point three minutes from time.

Queen's put in a strong second-half performance to overhaul St Mary's 0-8 to 1-3 interval lead.

The teams were level on 0-3 each after 18 minutes. Aidan Fagan then scored a goal for Queen's to put them ahead for the first time.

But Mark Harte put three frees over and Ronan Clarke added another point to give the visitors their interval advantage.

St Mary's opened a four-point gap seven minutes after the restart when Aidan McCarron scored a goal, but they were confined to just one more point as Queen's shot over seven to launch themselves into the next round.

QUEEN'S: W McSorley; N Bogue, D McCartan, R O'Neill; C Rafferty, E Devine, S Kelly (0-1); D Clerkin (0-2), M McGrath; A Carr (0-1), J Clarke, K Oakes (0-1); J Turley, BJ Padden (0-2), A Fagan (1-2). Subs: G Donaghy for Turley (37 mins), O McCartan (0-1) for Oakes (49 mins), P O'Hea for O'Neill (54 mins).

ST MARY'S, BELFAST: S Featherstone; C O'Toole, F Donnelly, P Quinn; D Harte (0-2), J McMahon, K Beagan; J Haran, D Gordon; L Meehan, L O'Hare, M Donnelly; M Harte (0-5, four frees), R Clarke (0-1), A McCarron (1-1).

Referee: P Finnegan (Louth).