Scarborough SC entered a new season as CSL champions and the pre-season activity points to a determination to successfully defend the title following what was an exciting CSL Championship Final victory over Ukraine United last October.
The recent signing of Vladimir Zelenbaba from SC Waterloo adds to an already strong side that has shown improvement each season since its launch in 2015 and while the new signing was held on the bench until the 66th minute mark of the Scarborough opener against Hamilton City at Esther Shiner Stadium on Saturday evening, the east Toronto side demonstrated an edge from the kickoff and strolled to a 7-2 victory.
In the second game of Saturday’s double header of an abbreviated regular season schedule, Vorkuta opened the scoring early and went on to register a second victory in as many games, a 3-1 result over Serbian White Eagles. The victory handed the Serbian side its second defeat of the season following a 6-4 loss on August 15.
Scarborough forward Moussa Limame struck the first hat-trick in the new CSL season, his goals coming at 39, 47 and 81 minutes, while singles were scored by Nikola Milinkovic at 36 minutes, Neven Radakovic four minutes later, Marvin O’Neil Morgan at 61 minutes and defender Daniel McIntosh, who picked up a clearance to drive the ball into the net from the edge of the box at 73 minutes. Hamilton City goals were scored by defenders Luke Rankin at 12 minutes and Vukasin Kovacevic at the 67th minute mark.
Vorkuta took the lead at the 9th minute mark, a goal by Mykola Temniuk who side-stepped four Serbian White Eagles’ defenders to drive the ball low into the net out of reach of goalkeeper Nokola Postic. It was 1-0 at the break.
Vorkuta midfielder Sergii Ivliev made it 2-0 at 57 minutes and Serbian White Eagles cut the lead to 2-1 on a goal by Miroslav Jovanovic, scoring from outside the box at 63 minutes. Midfielder Bohdan Borovskyi completed the scoring for Vorkuta at 73 minutes, a drive off the post before entering the net. It was 3-1 at the final whistle.
Upcoming games:
The brief season continues with two games Saturday, August 29 at Esther Shiner Stadium, to be followed by a move to Centennial Stadium in Toronto’s west-end for games Tuesday, September 1 and Wednesday, September 2.
Sat Aug 29 Esther Shiner Stadium 5 pm Brantford Galaxy Serbian White Eagles
Sat Aug 29 Esther Shiner Stadium 7 pm FC Vorkuta Scarborough SC
Tue Sep 1 Centennial Stadium 7 pm Hamilton City FC Vorkuta
Wed Sep 2 Centennial Stadium 7 pm Scarborough SC Brantford Galaxy
