York Region Shooters struck two late goals to defeat BGHC 4-2 to take a position tied on points with Scarborough at the top of the standings following Saturday’s three games in the Canadian Soccer League. Scarborough tied 1-1 with Serbian White Eagles and it was the same 1-1 score in the Toronto Falcons vs Continentals late game, all three games at Centennial Stadium in Toronto.
It was an attractive opening match with both teams conceding little most of the first half until Scarborough’s Milos Scepanovic took a left wing cross to shoot just wide, then two minutes later at 42 minutes midfielder Neven Radakovic drove the ball into the net from 20 yards and out of reach of Serbian White Eagles goalkeeper Adrian Ibanez for a 1-0 lead at the break.
Scarborough had three new signings in the game roster with midfielder Maximilian Never in the starting lineup, forward Murillo Gabriel entering the game as a substitute at 18 minutes and defender Joao Emmanuel.
Scarborough had a second goal ruled offside at 49 minutes and Vladimir Zelenbaba shot just wide for Scarborough 10 minutes later, but Serbian White Eagles scored an equalizer at 76 minutes when Vladimir Strizovic headed in a cross from the right wing past Scarborough goalkeeper Christan Moraldo. It was Strizovic’s 4th goal of the season. It was 1-1 at the final whistle.
York Region Shooters took a 1-0 lead at 27 minutes when defender Yussuf Yussuf found the net past BGHC goalkeeper Janko Milosevic at 27 minutes and Petar Djordjevic equalized for BGHC 10 minutes later. Aleksandar Bozovic struck for a 2-1 BGHC lead at 45 minutes, the score at the interval.
Shooters equalized with a goal by midfielder Osman Hussein at the 70th minute mark. A 2-2 score, and two late goals, the first at 89 minutes when Faris Abubaker scored, then at 92 minutes when Mahmoud Mehdi completed the scoring for a 4-2 final in favour of York Region Shooters.
Two first half goals within less than three minutes decided the outcome of the late game, an opening goal at 37 minutes by Continentals FC when forward Mykola Temniuk beat Falcons’ goalkeeper Vasyl Shpuk and the equalizing goal scored by Toronto Falcons’ midfielder Aubrey Mpala. There were two opportunities during the second half when Continentals’ forward Oleksii Boiko drove the ball just wide from 15 yards at the 59th minute mark and at 88 minutes defender Borys Orlovskiy had a shot saved by Shpuk. The game ended 1-1.