Wollongong Olympic produced a dramatic late winner to seal the Illawarra Premier League title against Bulli on Saturday.
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Ending a 25-year wait, Olympic had trailed, before Jamie Wakeling equalised then Mark Every found the perfect time to deliver his most important goal as it ticked well into injury time.
As they celebrated a 2-1 victory at Balls Paddock, dethroning Bulli in the process, the flood of text messages began, as Olympic learned Corrimal had been held to a draw by South Coast United, which extended the league lead to an unassailable seven points.
"It's been a long time coming," coach George Antoniou said.
"And especially to win it at Bulli, who have been the best time for a while. We've been chasing them for a couple of years, so the boys certainly celebrated.
"We had to work hard for it too after falling behind.
"The messages started coming through straight after the game, I didn't want to know the Corrimal score during it, I just wanted to focus on what we were doing."
South Coast United had opened the scoring on 40 minutes through Byungkuk Cho's header, but Corrimal were level when Van Elia capitalised after moments of pinballing chaos in the box.
Chasing an Football South Coast treble, Olympic will meet Bulli again in the Bert Bampton Cup final on Saturday afternoon at JJ Kelly Park.
Elsewhere, Albion Park moved to within a point of Corrimal with a 4-1 win over Tarrawawanna and Woonona boosted their finals hopes with a 2-1 win over Cringila.
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