In the battle of the all-Ireland champions it was holders Cross who defeated the 2010 winners by 3-09 to 2-05.
Meanwhile Ballinderry overcame Dromore by 1-11 to 0-12 to secure their place in the last four of the AIB Ulster Senior Club Football Championships.
Armagh champions Cross and Antrim champions St Gall's came together in front of a large crowd to see who would progress to the semi finals.
Cross came into the game following a Armagh championship final victory over Ballymacnab winning by a margin of 25 points to claim their 37 county title.
We knew this was going to be a real test for us – the first big test we had.
Crossmaglen’s Jamie Clarke
St Gall's had an equally impressive if not so large a winning margin in the Antrim final over a brave Lámh Dhearg side and the Milltown men eager to atone for their loss to the South Armagh kingpins in 2010.
Lenny Harbison's men came into this game without the influential Kevin McGourty who will miss the remainder of the year with a cruciate ligament tear and without their Donegal assistant manager Rory Gallagher and midfielder Aodhan Gallagher.
Dual star Karl Stewart and corner back Simon Kennedy also failed to make the St Gall's starting line up being replaced by the experienced Paul Veronica and CJ McGourty respectively.
Despite St Gall's showing the current Ulster and All Ireland champions the respect of a guard of Honour as the teams emerged from the stand it was clear there was no love between the sides.
Crossmaglen came into the game with a clean bill of health and with their eyes firmly fixed on retaining the Seamus Ferran cup.
As predicted both teams made a number of positional switches when both teams took to their positions with the referee Joe McQuillan's patience being tested as both teams set about softening each other up.
There was little in terms of open football in the first 10 minutes with both sides hitting early wides and the referee issuing a total of five yellow cards in the opening period.
The opening score of the game came from Jamie Clarke who brought a Michael McNamee long ball under control at his feet before finishing clinically to the net underneath the body of the on rushing Ronan Gallagher.
Cross midfielder David McKenna followed up with a point three minutes later and Cross were clearly enjoying a period of dominance in the middle third of the field winning most of the early breaking ball and tackling with high intensity limiting St Gall's to very little possession.
A minute later Aaron Cunningham swung a beautiful point over the bar with the outside of his boot out on the far touch line after some nice interplay with the lively Clarke.
It took until the 18th minute of the first half for St Gall's to open their account doing so through a CJ McGourty free.
Aaron Cunningham pointed again for the Rangers a minute later following more good link work between himself and Jamie Clarke who was tormenting St. Galls full back Colin Brady.
The impressive Stephen Finnegan added another point for Cross while Kevin Niblock was able to add to the St Gall's score line.
The game threatened to boil over as a spectacle late in the first half as both teams got involved with each other following a shoulder injury to Paul Kernan who was forced to retire with injury.
But it was Cross who reacted better to this physical encounter and they added on a further first half score from big midfielder Johnny Hanratty when he burst through the St Gall's defence to link on to a Michael McNamee pass to finish over the bar and leave the teams going in at the break Crossmaglen 1-5 St Gall's 0-2.
I wouldn’t be happy with large aspects of the game, we got sloppy.
Cross manager Tony McEntee
St Gall's needed to start the second half strongly however Crossmaglen signalled their intent to add to their impressive first half display by releasing the effervescent Oisín McConville from the bench for the second half but it was tormentor in chief Jamie Clarke who broke St Gall's hearts one minute into the second half when he made a dazzling solo run on the left hand side of the field to supply Aaron Cunningham who finished to the net.
St Galls where at the end of another Crossmaglen goal a minute later when Oisín McConville was adjudged to have brought down illegally in the small rectangle and it was McConville who despatched the penalty to the net to send Crossmaglen into a 3-5 0-2 lead and virtually ending any prospects of a St Gall's comeback.
St Gall's to their credit did keep trying the reduce the twelve point lead and with big Darren O'Neill now operating on the edge of the square the Milltown men were getting some rewards from the long high ball now being pumped in.
Tony McEntee and Gareth O'Neill played safety first and moved midfielder David McKenna to the edge of the square to counteract the aerial threat.
CJ McGourty pointed for St. Galls before corner forward Michael Pollock linked with O'Neill to rattle the Crossmaglen net.
The Kernan brothers Aaron and Stephen responded for Crossmaglen with Stephen's point in particular finishing off a fine team move from Crossmaglen.
St Gall's continued to show their resilience and the long ball to O'Neill again proved effective when he was able to break the ball to second half substitute Karl Stewart who finished to the net to reduce the gap to seven points.
The referee was forced to stop the game following a head injury to Johhny Hanratty who had to be stretchered from the field and when play resumed CJ McGourty and Aaron Kernan exchanged points before Karl Stewart pointed for St Gall's.
Tony Kernan finished the scoring with a booming 45 before Joe McQuillan dismissed CJ McGourty for a second yellow card following a tempestuous tackle.
Burren will play Rosslea Shamrocks and Latton O'Rahilly's will play Glenswilly on 12 November in the remaining quarter finals.