The Green Island striker had gone clear of the Otago University defence, and weighed up his options, before calmly slotting home past keeper Ryan Wood.
It completed a classy hat-trick for the silky attacker, propelling Green Island to the third round of the Chatham Cup with a 4-0 win at Logan Park Turf yesterday.
Hewson was clinical in front of goal and that was the difference between the teams, particularly in the first half.
University controlled the bulk of possession throughout the first half.
Speedy wing Tristan Mendoza made several breaks up the right to force the defence to scramble, while Jack Julian had a handful of nice touches.
However, aside from Julian putting one over the bar, Varsity was unable to create many genuine chances.
The Green Island attack was disjointed and it struggled to connect passes together, but it did more with the limited possession it had.
Hewson gave Green Island the lead after just four minutes, finishing in front after Caleb Manson put the ball into the goal mouth, following a long ball down the left.
That duo combined to make it 2-0 20 minutes later, after the defence withstood University’s best attacking effort.
Manson was again played into space up the left, before wrong-footing Wood and finding Hewson, who finished coolly in front of the goal.
The lead became 3-0 just before the break, as a messy scramble in the goal mouth ended with University defender Harry Kidd deflecting the ball into his own goal.
Hewson’s goal after halftime made it 4-0 and, while Green Island did not score again, it certainly looked far more threatening in the second half.
Cam Anderson came into the game more and delivered some quality balls, at times having the ball on a string to pressure the University defence.
Hewson looked to have added a fourth, but hit the inside of the post.
On the other Logan Park Turf pitch, the Dunedin City Royals ran away in the second half to beat Queenstown 6-0.
Connor Neil bagged a hat trick as they scored five second-half goals to cruise through to the third round.
At Ellis Park, Mosgiel claimed a 2-1 win over Roslyn-Wakari.
Rory Findlay gave Mosgiel a lead in the 37th minute, before Benjamin Taylor made it comfortable in the 85th minute.
Mike Sannum hit back with a 90th minute penalty for the host side.
Tyler Muir continued his goal-scoring tear to give Northern a 4-1 win over Queens Park in Invercargill.
Muir scored a hat-trick to take his season total to 20 goals, while Al Julanda Al Mawali scored Northern’s first.
In the Kate Sheppard Cup, Roslyn-Wakari put up a strong fight against the Dunedin City Royals, but ultimately came up short.
Shontelle Smith and Margarida Dias scored for the Royals to run out 2-0 winners at Tahuna Park.
Otago University claimed a 3-1 extra-time win over Mosgiel in the other local game, advancing to face the Royals for the right to play the team that emerges from the Mainland section of the draw.
Mosgiel held the students to 1-1 at the 90-minute mark, before two goals got University over the line.
