The students were celebrating after beating the South City Royals 4-1 in the fourth-round clash at the Caledonian Ground on Saturday.
They scored two goals inside the first 10 minutes to put them on the way to qualifying for the Chatham Cup quarterfinals.
"We’re pretty certain that’s the furthest University has got in the Chatham Cup," University coach Darren Hart said yesterday.
"It’s a good result, considering the disruption we’ve had over the past few weeks with students coming in and out of the team."
He was delighted when the students took an early lead.
"The key for our young guys is getting on the board early. It makes it a lot easier for them to believe they can do it.
"We nicked a couple of early goals. But 2-0 is not always the safest of score lines, and the Royals came out really strong in the second half.
"The wind was blowing every corner right at the goalkeeper. But we managed to hold on and do the simple things, and we got the buffer when we grabbed a third goal."
Oban Hawkins gave University the lead after just three minutes when he got the ball on the edge of the box and coolly finished past defenders and keeper into the bottom left corner.
The students found more openings through Hawkins, En Watanabe and Finn Rathbone, and the last-named made it 2-0 in the 10th minute, when he glided through the right side and finished in the same spot in the goal.
The Royals, who sealed the southern men’s league title three weeks ago, worked hard but battled to find fluency in midfield and did not create many scoring chances for much of the first half.
Connor Neil lifted South City near halftime and a couple of attacks showed promise, but it remained 2-0 at the break.
Raven August gave the Royals hope when he headed just over the bar, but the game was sealed in the 73rd minute when Alex Boomer saved a Rathbone shot but Watanabe tucked home the rebound to make it 3-0.
Neil set up substitute Michael Neaverson for the Royals’ consolation goal, before Yun Sung Chang made a run into the penalty area and found the bottom left corner of the net to complete the scoring for the students.
Coincidentally, the clubs will meet again this Saturday when they clash in the first round of the new-look Southern League.
In other Chatham Cup fourth-round games on Saturday, Miramar Rangers beat Lower Hutt City 4-1, North Shore United toppled Waiheke United 1-0, Hamilton Wanderers won 5-1 against Ngaruawahia United and Cashmere Technical beat Christchurch United 3-0. Three other games were being played yesterday.
The quarterfinal draw will be made tomorrow.
- Green Island beat Queenstown 6-5 in the remaining Southern Premiership men’s game played on Saturday.
Cam Anderson scored four goals and Adam Hewson added two for Green Island, which will hold on to the Blair Davidson Challenge Shield for the summer.
Willem Ebbinge scored a hat-trick for Queenstown.
