Marin Vucemilovic Grgic, last year’s MVP in the Canadian Soccer League and leading goalscorer for London City this year, scored all three goals for his team to defeat southwestern Ontario rivals SC Waterloo Region 3-2 in a highly entertaining encounter at the Hellenic Centre ground in London Friday night.
The game was an important one for both teams in the upper half of the CSL First Division standings pulling all stops to secure one of the four remaining playoff berths. Four spots have already been clinched by Kingston, Brampton, York Region Shooters and Toronto Croatia.
Forward Drazen Vukovic opened the scoring for Waterloo at the 37th minute mark for a 1-0 lead at the break.
Vucemilovic-Grgic tied the score 1-1 at 47 minutes and put London City into a 2-1 lead nine minutes later
Vukovic made it 2-2 when he found the net past London goalkeeper Vladimir Markotic at the 72nd minute mark – his 10th goal of the season – but just 60 seconds later Vucemilovic-Grgic collected the ball from a breakaway to drive the winner into the net to the left of Waterloo goalkeeper Imad Hakura, a 3-2 London lead.
The goal proved to be the game winner after Waterloo failed to score while pressing for an equalizer and it completed the hat-trick for Vucemilovic-Grgic and lifted the Split, Croatia native’s goals to 14 on the season.
The win improves London City’s record to 7-10-3WLT for 24 points and tied for 6th position in the standings, while SC Waterloo now have a 6-6-4 record for 22 points in 7th position.
Remaining games this weekend:
FIRST DIVISION
Sat, Sep 7 Kalar Sports Park 7 PM Niagara United vs Serbian White Eagles
(Ref: Justin Tasev, Assist:Victor Abou-Assaleh, Colman O’Meara 4th Hassane Rifai)
Sun, Sep 8 Esther Shiner Stadium 4:30 PM Astros Vasas FC vs SC Waterloo
(Ref: Yusri Rudolf, Assist: Brian Butler, David Di Pasquale 4th Jeff Fearnall)
Sun, Sep 8 Nelson Stadium 5 PM Burlington SC vs St. Catharines Wolves
(Ref:Ljubisa Vrljes, Assist: Benjamin Jacobs, Scott Milliquet 4th Scott Decker)
Sun, Sep 8 Victoria Park 5:30 PM Brampton City Utd vs York Region Shooters
(Ref: Pierre Acouri, Assist: Dan Popescu, Timothy Wong 4th Sean Hornsby)
Sun, Sep 8 Centennial Stadium 8 PM Toronto Croatia vs Windsor Stars
(Ref: Steve Depiero, Assist: Gianni Facchini, Peter Pendli 4th Ramee Arbaji)
SECOND DIVISION
Sat, Sep 7 Kalar Sports Park 4 PM Niagara United B vs Serbian White Eagles B
Sat, Sep 7 Hershey Field 5 PM Toronto Croatia B vs St. Catharines Wolves B
Sun, Sep 8 Victoria Park 3 PM Brampton City Utd B vs York Region Shooters B