The Bert Bampton Cup Quarterfinals saw a split between one sided affairs and close matches that went down to the wire as the field shrunk once more to lock down the final four teams competing for the trophy.

The Quarterfinals saw two District League sides participating for the third consecutive season, with both Warilla Wanderers and Helensburgh Thistle making the cut, and it was the Wanderers who kicked the Quarterfinals off when they hosted Premier League side Woonona Sharks at King Mickey Park on June 11. With the Sharks going through a resurgence of late in the Premier League, the side struggled to open the scoring until a goal from substitute Trent Worthington finally put the side 1-0 up.

However, Warilla – who are sitting in 5^th in the District League – were unwilling to call the match over and a goal from Brenton Geribo shortly before the full-time whistle locked up the match once more, forcing extra time for the second straight game for Woonona against District League opposition.

But unlike their Round of 16 clash, the Sharks would not need penalties to book their spot in the next round, netting in the first half of extra time thanks to a fantastic linkup play between Dejan and Daniel Djukic, seeing Daniel netting to give the Sharks a slim win and passage into the final four, going through 2-1 after extra time.

In the other match involving a District League side on June 11, Corrimal had a 6-1 win over Helensburgh at Memorial Park.

There was very little between the two sides in the opening half with the visitors having a couple of good chances to take the lead early on but it was the Rangers who led 1-0 at the break thanks to a penalty converted by Takeru Okada.

But the second half was a different story altogether, with Corrimal netting twice in the first 10 minutes of the second half through Jamie Wakeling and Masahiko Morita, giving the Rangers a 3-0 lead. But the side wasn’t finished and picked up another three goals, including Okada with his second of the afternoon and goals from Karouna Micheal and Calum Fleming.

The Thistle would manage to break the clean sheet with a quality goal in the 85^th minute, when a Cody Cuthbertson ball found Nathan Woolfers who managed to thump a header home, but it would prove nothing more than a footnote with Corrimal sailing into the final four.

The final match to take place on June 11 saw the two highest ranking local sides in the competition – Wollongong Olympic and Albion Park White Eagles – take on each other in what proved to be an interesting match at PCYC. With Albion Park choosing to heavily rotate the squad for the match, the side was a much more inexperienced side than Olympic’s starting XI, and that quickly shone through when Olympic took the lead within the opening minute through Ekoue D’Almeida.

But Albion Park managed to level the scores with some fantastic play in the 21^st minute, with Chris Gomez stepping up to fire an effort past Christian Pretto and level the scores. But the deadlock would remain only for 15 minutes before Olympic retook the lead, Brendan Fordham making the most of a scramble in the box to fire home and give Olympic a 2-1 lead at the break.

Olympic would extend their lead in the 59^th minute when David Hartas netted after a bursting run forward and after this goal Albion Park began to sink without a trace, with Olympic beginning to truly get on top of the fixture. Olympic would pick up their fourth of the afternoon just six minutes later when Kojiro Hori would convert from the penalty spot and the score would balloon to 5-1 in the 71^st minute when the side converted another penalty, this time Jack Keating netting from the spot and sending Wollongong Olympic through to the semi finals with relative ease, running out convincing 5-1 winners over Albion Park White Eagles.

The final quarter final was played on Wednesday night at Macedonia Park with Wollongong United taking on Tarrawanna. The Blueys had a strong chance of causing an upset with under 23s outfielder Jake Webster forced in goal for United after Sam Nastic and Ben Wunsch were both ruled out through injury. Despite this, the home side blasted out to a 4-0 lead at the break with striker Nathan Elasi netting a hat trick and sideman Daisuke Yuzawa scoring the other.

However, despite United’s scintillating performance in the first half, a spirited Blueys fightback saw a one on one Webster save all that kept United from being forced into extra time. Ricky Goodchild scored before Kouryo Kubota picked up a double to have the score at 4-3 with 20 minutes remaining. With just five minutes left to play, Tarrawanna’s Darren Stone - who was one of the main architects for the comeback - had a 50-50 one on one chance denied by a brave Webster lunging in to clear the ball. Kubota would manage one final chance for the Blueys with a 92nd minute bicycle kick, but it lollied into the makeshift custodian’s arms, United dodging a bullet and progressing to the final four.

In the Youth Cup, Port Kembla, University FC, Cringila Lions and Wollongong United have all progressed through to the Semi Finals.

The Semi Final draw is expected to take place early next week.

Report by Cal Behrendt, on Twitter @CalBehrendt

Photo courtesy of Pedro Garcia