FLOREAT Athena guaranteed a place in the Bam Creative Night Series quarter-finals with a 1-0 win over ECU Joondalup at Litis Stadium on Sunday night.
With one pool match remaining against Mandurah, the club cannot finish lower than second thanks to their two wins.
For ECU Joondalup, it is a different story after they were stripped of their points from their Round 1 win for fielding a player still serving a suspension from last season.
To have any chance of qualifying, the Students must beat the equally desperate Armadale in the Round 3 clash this weekend.
Particularly early in the match, Floreat displayed an intensity to test any side and ECU’s defence was under siege for the first 20 minutes.
The Students only remained in the match thanks to keeper Andy Banks.
It wasn’t until 16 minutes into the first half that ECU finally tested Athena keeper Alex Dunn but he was up to the challenge.
Despite their dominance, Floreat could not break the deadlock before half-time but their tenacity was rewarded in the 56th minute.
A Floreat corner was cleared from the penalty area but quickly sent back into the box, where John Mirco pounced and hit an unstoppable shot low into the right corner.