Oldham’s Papa John’s Trophy campaign came to an end as they lost 2-1 to Sunderland.
Bobby Grant had given Latics the lead in the game but the League One side came back to claim victory with Chris Maguire and Josh Scowen providing the goals.
Rowe had the first shot on goal of the game after he picked up a loose ball, he was forced to go out wide right and he did well to force Anthony Patterson into a smart save to keep the score level in the third minute.
The visitors had their first attack of the game with Conor McLaughlin doing well to overlap on the right-hand side and Ian Lawlor did well to get to the ball before Will Grigg from the low ball into the box.
Dylan Bahamboula did fantastically well to pick the ball up from deep and carry it into the Sunderland half before laying it off to Bobby Grant who shot low and hard past the Sunderland keeper to give Latics the lead. This goal is the club's 100th goal in the history of this competition.
The Black Cats had an immediate chance to restore parity, but Chris Maguire fired well over the bar after a good cross from Jack Diamond.
Lee Johnson’s side enjoyed a good spell of pressure and Bailey Wright should have done better with a header that was put straight at Lawlor and shortly after the Latics keeper was again forced into action shortly after, making a great save to deny a powerful volley from Maguire.
In the 24th minute, Rowe did well to win the ball back high up the pitch and then received the ball back and found Bahamboula who used trickery to engineer a shooting opportunity.
Sunderland’s pressure since going behind paid off on the half-hour mark with Maguire netting an equaliser. A ball came in from the right-hand side and Oldham failed to deal with it leaving the Sunderland winger with a simple finish at the back post.
It was Sunderland who controlled the majority of the rest of the first 45 but Latics did have a counter-attack in time added on with Grant capitalising on a mistake but he took one touch too many and a visiting defender made a good recovery tackle before Grant could slide the ball to Rowe.
Sunderland’s goalscorer Maguire had a chance from a dangerous looking free-kick but the Latics wall did its job to block his 55th minute effort.
The away side started the second half in a similar vein to the way they finished the first and Max Power did well to beat the offside trap but was unable to live up to his name and his cross was intercepted by Carl Piergianni.
Sunderland got the goal that their perseverance deserved in the 64th minute, with Josh Scowen flicking home a headed effort from an inviting ball into the Oldham box.
Latics’ first real sight of goal came in the 70th minute with a smart passing move gave Conor McAleny an opportunity to have a strike on goal but the attacker blazed his effort over the crossbar.
Sunderland-born Davis Keillor-Dunn had a great chance to level the scoring but Patterson did well to save his deflected effort, denying him a goal against his hometown club in the 82nd minute.
Latics did start to look more threatening towards the back end of the game but Sunderland held on comfortably to claim their name in the hat for the quarter-finals.
Oldham Athletic XI – Lawlor, Jombati, Piergianni, Whelan (Garrity, 67), Rowe (Fage, 56)/, Keillor-Dunn, Grant, Ntwambe, Barnett, Diarra, Bahamboula (McAleny, 67)
Subs – Bilboe, Garrity, Fage, McAleny, McCalmont, Da Silva, Hamer
Goals: Grant (13)
Sunderland XI – Patterson, McLaughlin, Wright, Power ©, Maguire (McGeady, 64), Scowen, Flanagan, Diamond, Grigg (Wyke, 64), Leadbitter (Dobson, 70), McFadzen
Subs – Matthews, Neil, Dobson, Wyke, Embleton, Graham, McGeady
Goals: Maguire (30) Scowen (64)
Ref – Samuel Barrott (Replaced by Graham Sailsbury)