Edgeworth, Olympic do it the hard way to stay in Australia Cup

Edgeworth had the toughest test, hosting fellow NPL heavyweights Lambton Jaffas, and they overcame a double penalty miss in the 90th minute to equalise before going on to win 3-1 in extra-time.

Maitland beat second-tier Belmont Swansea 6-0 and Broadmeadow downed Northern Rivers side Bangalow 5-1 at home.

Olympic scored goals in the 88^th and 90^th minutes via a Joey Langlois back-post finish and Lachlan Griffiths strike to edge out another Northern Rivers club, Alstonville, 2-0 on the road.

The draw for the next games will be on Tuesday. The winners of the matches a week later will represent Northern NSW in the national round of 32.

Edgeworth, who beat NPL leaders Charlestown in extra-time in their previous cup game, were down 1-0 on Saturday night when Kale Bradbery scored inside the last 10 minutes at Jack McLaughlan Oval.

Jarryd Sutherland then earned a penalty for Edgeworth but had his shot blocked by Ben Kennedy. The keeper, though, was deemed to have come off his line, giving the Eagles another opportunity. However, Sutherland put his second chance over the crossbar.

The hosts kept coming and levelled with an own goal in the third minute of stoppage time. Sascha Montefiore then converted a penalty after a foul on Josh Rose in the first half of extra-time before Joe Melmeth made it 3-1 at the death.

"It was epic but I thought on balance we deserved the win," Edgeworth coach Peter McGuinness said.

"I thought we were the better team but Ben Kennedy made some awesome saves for them."

Riley Smith earlier scored a hat-trick in Broadmeadow's comfortable day-time win at Magic Park.

Smith scored in the eighth minute before Johny Stambolieff levelled in the 12^th. Sam Donnellan put Magic back in control a minute later.

Smith struck in the 55^th and 56^th minutes to put the result beyond doubt. Keanu Moore slotted a penalty in the 78^th to ice the win.

Later at Cooks Square Park, Maitland led Belswans 3-0 at halftime before scoring three more goals in the final 20 minutes. Ty Cousins converted a penalty before Braedyn Crowley, Lachlan Webb, Isaac Collins and Joe Mcfadyen scored. Their other score was an own goal.

In the only NPL game played on the weekend, Charlestown regained the outright ladder lead with a 1-0 catch-up win over Valentine at Hunter Sports Centre.

Rene Ferguson was on the spot to hit home a loose ball in the box after a corner in the 39^th minute on Saturday.

Azzurri went to 31 points, three clear of Weston and four ahead of Magic with the top seven sides all now on 14 games.

Edgeworth, Maitland, Jaffas and Olympic are on 24 points. Valentine remain on 18 in eighth spot.

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