Erindale College have eliminated the reigning Peter Mulholland Cup premiers, Patrician Brothers Fairfield, defeating them 22-10 at Seiffert Oval to advance to the quarter finals.
Erindale centre Mark Tuialii was a standout for the red, black and white, proving a handful on the right-edge and scoring the match sealing try.
Erindale will now cruise through to the quarter finals of the 2023 competition undefeated, beating out Patrician Brothers, Illawarra SHS and Matraville SHS.
The ACT side started the game in perfect fashion, gaining early field position to strike on the right edge through Dakai Lilo-Bolatagaci to crack the first points.
After some solid Fairfield defence, Erindale finally cracked through for their second of the day, this time Sam Gash linking up with the opposite centre Peter Soward to extend their lead to 8-nil.
Erindale left the door ajar after an impressive first half, making a mistake coming out of trouble to give Patrician Brothers an opportunity.
Fairfield made them pay, Saia Alatini crashing over in the final minutes to close the gap to 8-6 at the halftime break.
Erindale coach Ash Barnes fired his boys up at halftime and they responded early, pouncing on a Fairfield mistake to open the scoring in the second half through Xavier Cacciotti.
Gash had an off day with the boot, missing his first three shots at conversion, leaving the scores 12-6 after 33 minutes.
Patrician Brothers fought their way back in the game, yet again making Erindale pay for an unforced error with Jezia Tua'au going over in the corner, closing the score to 12-10.
The match entered an arm-wrestle for the next ten minutes with both sides showing fight and some outstanding scrambling defence.
But it was the man of the match who broke the deadlock, Mark Tuialii, who received some early ball from Mitchell Brophy to show his speed and footwork to score in the corner. Gash's conversion waved away, holding a tight 16-10 lead with six minutes to go.
Fairfield attempted a short kick-off but it was defused by the Erindale defence before giving away back-to-back penalties which killed their chances of a comeback.
Halfback Ethan Alaia put the game to bed, springing off his left-foot to beat four defenders and score the match winner in an incredible individual effort.
Gash got a great cheer from the crowd as he converted the try to extend Erindale's lead to 22-10 at fulltime.
Fulltime: Erindale College 22 (Tries: Bolatagici, Soward, Cacciotti, Tuialii, Alaia; Goal: Gash) def Patrician Brothers Fairfield 10 (Tries: Alatini, Tua'au; Goal: Muagututia)
