Caulfield captains DCU to Sigerson success
Ciaran Caulfield became the first Meath man to captain a Sigerson Cup winning side since Gerry McEntee led UCD to glory in 1978 when he inspiured DCU to a 1-16 to 3-6 win over McEntee's old alma mater at the Connacht Centre of Excellence in Bekan on Wednesday night.
The Meath senior vice-captain was once again outstanding for the Glasnevin college as he produced his usual solid, hard running, penetrating performance and chipped in with another point from his wing-back role.
For every winner there has to be a defeated side and Caulfield's Trim club mate Aaron Lynch was on the losing UCD side. Lynch also had an industrious outing for the Belfield side, assisting the third goal late on to give his side a brief glimmer of hope.
Diarmuid Moriarty was a surprise non-starter for UCD. The Curraha man had started most other games for his side, but he was replaced on the half-forward by Ben O'Carroll and only game with 17 minutes remaining as UCD trailed 2-5 to 1-11. St Peter's David McEntee was an unused sub for UCD.
So while there was disappointment for that Meath trio the four Royal representatives on the DCU had plenty to celebrate, although O'Mahonys goalkeeper Niall Devlin, Ratoath's All-Ireland MFC winning captain Liam Kelly and Donaghmore/Ashbourne's Jamie Browne didn't get game time.
Monaghan's Ryan O’Toole struck an early goal for UCD to cancel out early points from Skerries Harps pair of Ethan Dunne and Greg McEneaney, but the Belfield college were second best as DCU dominated.
Despite being the better side DCU had to settle for parity at half-time as Tom Prior (two), Luke Marren and Eoghan O'Connor-Flanagan added to Dunne and McEneaney's early scores to complete their first-half tally.
Conor Heffernan, Marren and Niall Dolan edged DCU into the lead after the break and when rising Dublin star Dunne blasted a brilliant goal in the 38th minute to make it 1-9 to 1-5 there was a sense of inevitability about the outcome.
Kildare's Callum Bolton did reply with UCD's second goal just before Moriarty was introduced, but further points from Dublin's Lorcan O'Dell and Dunne calmed DCU.
Caulfield's 54th minute point extended his side's lead to 1-15 to 2-5 and even though Bolton grabbed his second and UCD's third goal from Lynch's assist in the 62nd minute it was too little too late and DCU held on comfortably to claim their sixth crown and first since 2020.
DCU - Eoin McGuinness; Bryan Masterson, Luke Glennon, Alex Gavin; Eoghan O'Connor-Flanagan (0-1), Ronan Gallagher, Ciarán Caulfield (0-1); Ethan Dunne (1-2), Conor Heffernan (0-1); Niall Dolan (0-1), Conor Dolan, Greg McEneaney (0-1); Tom Prior (0-3), Ryan Donohoe, Luke Marren (0-2 frees). Subs - Lorcan O’Dell (0-1) for Dolan 34m, Darragh Swords (0-3 one free) for Donoghue 36m, Johnny McGroddy for Dolan 50m, Jack Tumulty for Marren 55.
UCD - Killian Roche; Malachy Stone, Darragh McElearney (1-0), Theo Clancy (0-1); Charlie McMorrow, Charlie Drumm, Ryan O'Toole (1-0); Callum Bolton (1-2), Peter Duffy; Mark McNally, Luke Breathnach (0-1), Cormac Egan; Daire Cregg (0-2 frees), Ben O'Carroll, Aaron Lynch. Subs - Sam Callinan for McNally half-time, Paul Honeyman for O’Carroll, Diarmuid Moriarty for McMorrow both 44m, Senan Forker for Egan 48m, Liam Costello for Duffy 57m.
Referee - Seán Hurson (Tyrone).