Milos Lujic gave the team from Melbourne the lead with a neat header after 34 minutes but the home side levelled within four minutes via a penalty from Florian Matik to ensure the teams were locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes and after extra-time.
Sharks defender Eoghan Morgan was given a second yellow card with 12 minutes of extra time remaining, but his team survived and made it to a shootout where goalkeeper Shane Viitakangas stepped up as the hero.
Viitakangas saved two spot kicks in the shoot-out, firstly denying Stephen Hatzikostas, then South skipper Michael Eager in sudden-death to seal the win for the team from the Gold Coast.
Hume City of Melbourne broke Brisbane Strikers' heart - twice - to survive a thrilling affair.
Hume took the lead early through Nick Hegarty before Greig Henslee hit back midway through the first half for the Strikers and Scot Coulson seemingly hit the winner for the visitor in the 90th minute.
But Marcus Shroen responded with a header for Hume in the final seconds of regulation time to send the match into extra-time.
Coulson again gave Brisbane the initiative, scoring in the 103rd minute to put his side ahead 3-2, but Shroen popped up again after 105 minutes to make the scores level.
There would be one more twist though as Henslee turned the ball in to his own net in the final minute of extra time to give Hume a remarkable 4-3 win.
MetroStars of South Australian came from behind to defeat Blacktown City at Lily's Football Centre, Seven Hills, NSW.
Patrick Antelmi opened the scoring for the home team in the 35th minute before the MetroStars hit back in the second half with goals from Jonathan Negus and Rocky Callisto.
Heidelberg United put aside the controversy of losing goalkeeper Griffin McMaster after making offensive tweets earlier in the day to sweep aside home team Broadmeadow Magic 3-1.
Heidelberg raced out to a 3-0 lead by the break with Jack Petrie (21’), Kaine Sheppard (24’), Daniel Heffernan (37’) all finding the net.
Scott Pettit pulled one back for Magic in the second half but the visitor would hold on to its two goal buffer.
