York Region Shooters pulled it off, a 3-2 victory over Toronto Croatia to complete the regular season unbeaten, while elsewhere in the CSL Kingston FC ended their season on a winning note, a 1-0 result at Brampton and struggling Niagara United ended the season with a 1-0 upset win over in-form North York Astros, three games in the CSL First Division Sunday.
York Region took an early lead and never looked back. A draw was always a possibility, but that the Shooters would go the distance without losing a key game with Toronto Croatia at an unseasonably chilly St. Joan of Arc ground at Maple, just north of Toronto, was as safe as a street of houses. They were determined not to fall apart. They were determined to complete the 18-game regular season unbeaten.
Des Humphrey struck the first goal at 10 minutes to give the Shooters the early lead they needed to put the game on solid footing, but Toronto Croatia replied with a goal from Pero Menalo, his seventh of the season six minutes later and it was 1-1 at the break.
Richard West put the league leaders 2-1 up at 50 minutes – his seventh of the season and probably the best goal of the match, a drive inside the right post to leave Toronto Croatia goalkeeper Antonio Ilic with no chance.
Midfielder Babjide Fatoba increased the lead to 3-1 at 59 minutes for the home side, and Toronto Croatia’s Josip Keran reduced the lead to 3-2 at 81 minutes. It was 3-2 at the final whistle.
The regular season ended for York Region with an impressive 13-0-5 WLT for 44 points, that’s 11 points ahead of second place Toronto Croatia. The Shooters will be at home to Brampton City Utd in the quarterfinals. The Toronto team completed its schedule with a 10-5-3 record for 33 points to meet SC Waterloo at the Hershey Centre for their quarterfinals game.
It was scoreless until late in the game at the Terry Fox Stadium in Brampton with few opportunities to put the ball past Brampton goalkeeper Cristian Montero Velez or Erwann Ofouya in goal for Kingston, but Kingston broke through at the 87th minute mark when midfielder Oussama Silmani found the net past Montero Valez for the winning goal from a free kick, a 1-0 final score.
The win moves Kingston into third in the standings with a regular season record of 8-6-4 for 28 points and a home draw against Serbian White Eagles in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. Brampton has a 6-9-3 record for 21 points and will meet York Region in the quarterfinals.
Goals were also in short supply at Esther Shiner Stadium in North York where the visiting Niagara United scored a 1-0 upset win over North York Astros. The goal came at 89 minutes, a solo effort by Niagara forward Lucas Forlino who collected the ball to break away and chip over the head of Astros’ goalkeeper Kevin Lumbsden Pinto as they met 40 yards from goal.
The goal was scored just three minutes after North York’s Boris Milicic was shown the red card at 86 minutes following a second caution. The game ended 1-0 in favour of Niagara United.
The Astros complete their regular season with a 7-6-5 record for 26 points to end in fourth position in the standings for a quarterfinals home draw against Burlington SC. Niagara United completed their season with a 3-13-2 record for 11 points at the foot of the table.
The First Division schedule for the quarterfinals is:
FIRST DIVISION SCHEDULE – Quarterfinals
Sat Oct 11 Queen’s West Field 6.15 pm Kingston FC vs Serbian White Eagles
Sat Oct 11 Hershey Centre 7 pm Toronto Croatia vs SC Waterloo
Sun Oct 12 Esther Shiner Stadium 3.30 pm North York Astros vs Burlington SC
Sun Oct 12 St. Joan of Arc 6 pm York Region Shooters vs Brampton City Utd
Sunday night’s Second Division games:
Kingston FC B 2, Brampton City United B 1
SC Waterloo B 6, Milton SC 1
York Region Shooters B vs Toronto Croatia B POSTPONED (To be rescheduled mid-week)
SECOND DIVISION SCHEDULE – Quarterfinals – To be arranged