The Steelers went down to the Knights 30-12 in their Elimination Final clash at Henson Park on Sunday afternoon.
The win sees Newcastle advance to take on the Bulldogs next week with a Preliminary Final berth at stake.
The Knights could not have hoped for a more dominant opening stanza with the Novocastrians barely allowing Illawarra to complete a set as they poured on 30 unanswered points.
Centre duo Summer Dowell and Shikynah Pearson proved a handful throughout much of the opening period whilst Addie Hagan's boot also presented several headaches for the Steelers' outside backs.
The intermission gave Illawarra an opportunity to regroup and they did exactly that holding Newcastle scoreless in the second half and nabbing two tries of their own.
The deficit proved too steep however as Illawarra's campaign came to an end courtesy of an 18-point defeat.
Match: Knights v Steelers
Finals Week 1 -
home Team
Knights
away Team
Steelers
Venue: Henson Park, Sydney
The opening exchanges of the contest were characterised by Illawarra's poor ball control which handed Newcastle first points with second-rower Lacey Cross jumping in at acting half and burrowing her way over.
It didn't take long for the Knights to nab their second with Summer Dowell taking in a Sienna Thomas face ball from her own side of half-way and busting several tackles to streak away and dive over under the posts as their lead improved out to 12-0.
Illawarra's horror start continued just moments later with Charley Lahmert taking advantage of a quick play-the-ball to dive over out of dummy-half for the Knights' third just 15 minutes into the encounter.
The scoreline soon ballooned out further with Dowell, off the back of a yardage penalty, slipping through down the left-hand corridor to get over for her second and make it 24-0 as the Knights continued starving the Steelers of possession.
As the Steelers' length of time without seeing the ball grew, so did Newcastle's buffer with captain Emily McArthur crashing over in simple fashion to extend their lead out to 30-0 which they took into the break.
The second half got off to better start for the Steelers with a Skye Spencer bomb forcing a Knights error and Sophie Taylor crashing over off the back of it to snatch her side's first points.
Hagan was taken from the field for a HIA soon after – which she ultimately passed – having copped a nasty knock as Newcastle were forced into a re-shuffle.
Tarsha Gale Cup Elimination Final Highlights: Steelers vs. Knights
The Steelers continued their improved second half with Spencer scooping up a Knights drop and racing off close to 60 metres downfield before being chopped down.
Several plays later, a determined Ally Hamilton scooted out of dummy-half and got the ball to the grass to notch Illawarra's second try of the afternoon and cut the deficit back to 18 entering the home stretch.
Unfortunately, the Steelers had left themselves too much work to do as the Knights held on for a win that sees their season extend into the second week of the postseason.
