Goals from Stephen James Harris and Fergus Jeans wrapped up a vital cup round win for Adelaide University Black on Sunday.

Lingering mid table after some unlucky league results, the Blacks earned a confidence boost with win against undefeated Sunday Division 2 team West Adelaide Raptors.

Cup Round 1
West Adelaide Raptors 1-2 Adelaide University Black
Goals: Stephen Harris, Fergus Jeans

Jayden Husson made his first team starting debut at left full back and 17-year-old Peter Makris was on the bench for the first time.

The Blacks started the game buzzingly and after four minutes, Ryan Lavery played Jeans in with a delicious through ball, but the latter was unable to take the ball in his stride at pace.

The game was even in the early stages with Raptors having a lot of possession in their own half but struggling to find a path through the Blacks midfield.

On 20 minutes, a corner routine resulted in a driven ball being laid off to Jeans by Michael Decelis that was well saved by the ‘keeper.

Two minutes later, a through ball to Lavery should have resulted in a penalty however the ball was cleared and our follow up shot was neatly saved by the keeper.

Raptors’ only route to goal appeared to be long balls over the top of our central defence, however Simon, Tony Pignata and Roan Gillam were able to deny the opposition forwards when they found their way through.

At half time, coach Greg Clarke challenged the boys to find a way to win and not allow the collapse from last week’s Adelaide Cobras loss to happen again.

Raptors increased their intensity and physical approach from the start of the second half and in the 56th minute they were able to punish some sloppy play in midfield with a well finished shot across Blacks’ ‘keeper Roan into the far corner.

Knowing the goal was against the run of play, the Blacks continued to probe the Raptors’ defence for gaps and on 60 minutes Decelis wriggled free on the right wing and put in a delectable cross, which Lavery sent just wide of the far post with his head.

The arm wrestle continued and on 67 minutes a dangerous Raptors corner was cleared to Jeans who broke down the right wing and cut back the ball to

Lavery at the top of the box. However, Stevie Harris had made a lung busting 70 metres run to join the attack and hit the first time shot over the keeper to equalise for the Blacks.

Decelis always put the Blacks ahead six minutes later, after beating his man on the right wing and cut in for a curled left foot shot that beat everything except for the far post. Raptors scrambled to clear the ball.

Decelis continued to cause trouble for the opposition defenders, as he beat two men on the left wing was brought down as he shaped up for a shot on goal. For reasons known only to the ref, a penalty was not awarded much to the shock of the travelling Uni faithful.

For the final stanza, a spritely Jonny Daughtry was brought on for Miles Lindberg who seemed to be in the refs bad books.

Daughtry immediately made an impact which seemed to unsettle the Blacks’ opponents. He then linked up with Somas Subramaniam in the 85th minute and played Jeans in behind the who coolly finished past the ‘keeper to put the Blacks ahead.

The Blacks fought hard to close out the game and earned progress through to the next cup round.

There were many positives for us on the day in a game where we came back from going down and strong contributions from all involved,” coach Greg Clarke said, reflecting on the win.

A big thanks to Bastien Llamas for coming out and putting the ground stewards vest on and supporting us.