FC Vorkuta completed its regular season with a 2-1 victory over nearest rivals Scarborough SC Saturday, to register an unbeaten 18 games and a nine-points margin at the top of the table. Waterloo completed its regular season with a 5-0 win over Brantford Galaxy and in one other game Real Mississauga kept its playoff hopes alive with a 1-0 defeat of Hamilton City.
Vorkuta took 1-0 lead midway through the first half at Esther Shiner Stadium, a goal by Sergei Ivliev who took a corner kick by Bogdan Borovskyi to volley the ball into the corner out of reach of Scarborough goalkeeper John Trye. Scarborough equalized at the 33rd minute mark, a goal by the prolific Aleksandar Stojiljkovoc, his 13th of the season to be second in the First Division scoring behind Vorkuta’s Mykola Temniuk, the scoring leader with 18. It was 1-1 at the break.
Vorkuta was on the attack for most of the second half and the winning goal came at 75 minutes from the penalty spot. Vorkuta’s Serhii Melnyk was brought down in the box and captain Liubomyr Halchuk found the net from the spot. The 2-1 Vorkuta lead held to the final whistle.
Vorkuta ended the regular season with a 15-0-3 WLT record for 48 points, while Scarborough ended with 13-2-3 for 39 points in the runner-up position.
Forward Petar Dordevic opened the scoring at the 20th minute at Heritage Field for Waterloo, a 1-0 score at the break. Sven Arapovic made it 2-0 for the visitors at 50 minutes and Aleksandar Milovanovic increased the lead to 3-0 seven minutes later.
Dado Hadrovic increased the Waterloo lead to 4-0 at 71 minutes and forward Aleksandar Bozovic completed the scoring at 78 minutes, a 5-0 result in favour of Waterloo at the final whistle.
Waterloo completed the regular season with a 10-7-1 record for 31 points, while Brantford Galaxy has a 2-14-1 record for 7 points, with one game remaining.
Real Mississauga won a 1-0 squeaker over Hamilton City at Heritage Field to keep playoff hopes alive. Real Mississauga has a 3-12-1 record for 10 points and in ninth position in the table with two games remaining in the regular season, while Hamilton City has a 4-9-3 record for 15 points and also two games remaining.
Teams having clinched a playoff spot are:
FC Vorkuta
Scarborough SC
SC Waterloo
FC Ukraine United
Serbian White Eagles
Kingsman A
CSC Mississauga
Hamilton City or Real Mississauga will clinch the last playoff spot to complete the eight First Division teams in the CSL Championship playoffs.
Brantford Galaxy has been eliminated from the playoffs.
Quarterfinals for the CSL Championship will be played the weekend October 11 to 13, the semifinals the following weekend October 18 to 20.
The CSL Championship Final and the Second Division Championship will be played at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke on Saturday, October 26 and the Second Division Championship will kickoff at 1 pm to be followed by the CSL Championship at 3 pm
UPCOMING GAMES IN THE FIRST DIVISION
Tuesday, Oct. 1 Centennial Stadium 8 pm FC Ukraine United vs Real Mississauga SC
Wednesday, Oct. 2 Centennial Stadium 7.30 pm Serbian White Eagles vs Kingsman A
Wednesday, Oct 2 St. Marcellinus HS Field 9 pm CSC Mississauga vs Hamilton City
