CS Saint-Laurent Wins L1QC Title

The 2023 Ligue1 Quebec champion has been decided and the bottles were flowing at Restaurant Sauvage.

This weekend saw CS Saint-Laurent lay claim to the title in what is just the club’s second-ever L1QC season, with the team having finished as runners-up in their debut campaign last season.

They’ve notched that up to a first place finish this year with the title-clinching victory coming through a tight win over powerhouse club AS Blainville, who had won the league for four consecutive seasons in 2017-2020 but presently themselves in sub-par seventh place.

CS Saint-Laurent secured the Ligue1 Quebec championship title with a 4-3 result as goals from Yann Toualy and PLSQ All-Star Nathan Goulet complimented a brace from Loic Kwemi, who bagged the 83rd minute title-winner.

That means that CS Saint-Laurent will represent Ligue1 Quebec – formerly known as the PLSQ – in the 2024 Canadian Championship, where they’ll join the Simcoe County Rovers and Victoria Highlanders as the only non-professional competitors.

The club has enjoyed fine form from golden boot contender Loic Kwemi, a Cameroonian-Canadian striker who had trialed with Cavalry in 2019. He procured 19 goals in 18 matches for the club last year, when he was also named the 2022 Canadian male futsal player of the year. This season has seen him tally 14 in a one-goal-per-match campaign, four short of FC Laval’s Adama Sissoko with three games left to play.

It’s a stellar moment for one of Quebec’s newest semi-pro sides, and they’ll enjoy plenty of spotlight as they enter a national knockout cup competition next season – perhaps seeing Obeng Tabi suit up against his former CPL team, too.

Oh, and Saint-Laurent’s backup goalkeeper goes by the moniker of Cleansheet Pete. You love to see it.

Nine points behind them and now mathematically eliminated from the championship are Royal Select Beauport, another relative newcomer who joined the league in 2021. Evidently, the new kids on the block are doing alright.

CS Saint-Laurent will has three matches left to play in the season, with a home match against Lanaudiere-Nord sandwiched between away trips to Ottawa South United and Royal Select Beauport.

Header Image Photo Credit: Raphael Williams-Claudio