Keebra Park SHS ARL Schoolboys Cup @ SunCorp Stadium (Photo's : Steve Montgomery / OurFootyTeam.com)

Illawarra SHS ARL Schoolboys Cup @ SunCorp Stadium (Photo's : Steve Montgomery / OurFootyTeam.com)

ARL SCHOOLBOYS CUP LOCKER ROOM HERE

Story & Photo's By : Darren Hart &

A quickfire try to prop Moseses Fotuaika opened the scoring and conversion by Cayden Matahaere saw the Keebra boys take a 6-0 lead.

An armwrestle ensued and a nasty headclash saw Illawarra loose big prop forward Mitchell Stokes, who was to play no further part in proceedings.

Connor Toia added another unconverted Keebra try that saw them take a 10 - 0 lead into the final moments of the first half.

Illawarra fired back and great probing run by Sam Clune lead to a try before the whistle that saw the halftime score at 10 - 6.

Illawarra were looking dangerous and Keebra were looking uncharacteristically flat. The second half talk seemed to refocus Keebra and soon after the restart a try came off the back of some solid defence.

Cayden Matahaere converted his own try and it was 16 - 6.

Illawarra were already down one SGBall rep in Stokes and in the process of Matahaere scoring also lost Sam Clunes walking around SunCorp dazed & confused with a suspected concussion.

To their credit, Illawarra rallied again and scored to put the score at 16 - 12 with 8 minutes remaining.

Then Illawarra made a break down the left side and had a classic 3 on 2 attacking option, Illawarra drew the defenders in, the Illawarra Winger rang inside and the pass went to no one with the line open and only 10 meters away.

Keebra recieved a penalty in front of the posts with 2 minutes to go and opted to kick for the two points that ran down the clock and put Illawarra out of the competition.

This was an scrappy affair with both sides having opportunities to take the game. There is now three weeks until Keebra face off against the winner of the Matraville versus Hills encounter.

A time to regroup and refocus and what will ultimately lead to a classic final.