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League1 Canada Men’s Review – Week 17
By Ok… I know, I know, I’m a tad late to the game with this week’s review, however it has been a busy week in League1 Ontario and Ligue1 Quebec! Although both League1 BC and Alberta have wrapped up operations for 2024, we still have a few weeks left of L1 action in the original two host provinces, so let’s dive right in!
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With the women’s League1 Canada season having pretty much all wrapped up, you can catch up on the entire League1 season coast-to-coast courtesy of Northern Tribune through our authors’ archives.
League1 Ontario: Top Battle, Bottom Battle
So it was a busy one in League1 Ontario this past week as the league rounded out its Premier and Championship seasons. With only, on average, two games remaining per team following this matchweek in both divisions, it’s now or never for those seeking promotion, avoiding relegation, or perhaps even yearning for their place in the 2025 Canadian Championship.
The Premiership is currently in the midst of two, two-way battles for first and second last while the Championship is hosting a six-way battle for last place and the potential for relegation. Here’s how it all played out this past week!
League1 Ontario – Premiership
Burlington SC 0 – 4 Simcoe County Rovers FC
Alliance United FC 1 – 2 Vaughan Azzurri
Hamilton United 0 – 6 Sigma FC
Scrosoppi FC 4 – 0 Guelph United FC
Woodbridge SC 3 – 3 Blue Devils FC
North Toronto Nitros 2 – 0 ProStars FC
ProStars FC 6 – 2 Hamilton United
North Toronto Nitros 1 – 3 Simcoe County Rovers FC
Blue Devils FC 1 – 2 Alliance United FC
Scrosoppi FC POSTPONED Burlington SC
Guelph United FC 0 – 1 Woodbridge SC
Vaughan Azzurri 5 – 2 Sigma FC
Despite the Simcoe Rovers having, for the most part, known their fates coming into this week, it was still truly anyone’s game as Burlington needed the points to avoid dropping in the table. It would be 6-0 in favour of the Bayhawks, but that was in terms of bookings collected, all the while Hugo, Layne, Lawson, and Hernandez racked up four goals for SCR to put them above the Nitros.
In a repeat of the men’s and women’s League2 Ontario finals, Vaughan took the trip over to North Maple Field as they visited Alliance United. Raouf Mohamed put the Azzurri up early with a brace by the 40′, with this lead holding firm against the Alliance attack despite a 79′ strike by Mehdi Esoussi to cut it in half.
Last place and 2025 Championship side Hamilton United did not have a good Week 17. Having failed to notch a single win this season, they did collect their 14th loss of the campaign in a 6-0 thrashing by Sigma, who is also in contention to be relegated. Led by a Kevaughn Tavernier brace, Kone, Kane, Olatoye, and Esprit all pitched in for the victory, backstopped by a stellar clean sheet for Dino Bontis.
Barely hanging on to a spot in the Premiership for next year, Justin Springer’s Guelph United side has truly struggled to string together cohesive performances this season, and this was on display Wednesday evening. Going up against former UnitedFront stars in Tomasz Skublak and Alex Zis, Skublak led the charge against his old club with a brace while teammates Faris Ammari and Noah Dedomincis found mesh themselves to found our the four-nil scoreline.
While out of the title race, sitting nine points back of first-placed Scrosoppi FC, Woodbridge still has one of their best season to-date in the crosshairs, so any points they can round up are good ones. But the party-poopers that are the Blue Devils had other plans as they met at Vaughan Grove Field. With the Strikers having the 3-0 lead by the 47′, it slowly seeped away from them goal by goal, including the tying goal from a corner for BDFC in the 89′ to split the points. See above!
North Toronto was probably hoping for more from their 2024 campaign, at least more than a probable fifth-place finish. But there is no reason they can’t go out on a high and they started that on Wednesday against ProStars. With their two goals coming separated by three minutes, Tadija Vukas and Fadi Salback played the heroes for the Nitros to secure the W over the Brampton-based side
North Toronto didn’t find too much luck in their second game of the week, however, as they invited SCR down to Downsview Park. With Jevonate Laybe opening the scoring in the 2′, it would be a sign of the times for the Nitros with Lawson and Hugo getting goals of their own to outmatch the one goal coming for the hosts in the 68′, kudos of Zakaria Abdi.
ProStars then redeemed themselves come Saturday as they hosted Hamilton United at Victoria Park. In another trouncing of the Steel City side, five individual ProStars players would be successful in their strikes, including two from 62-minute substitute Darrian Sinclair whose 80′ and 85′ goals capped off a great night for the ProStars front line.
Come Sunday’s meeting between Blue Devils and Alliance, Atchu Sivananthan’s brace by the 33′ would be all that was needed to sink Duncan Wilde’s Devils. And even with Nikola Stakic’s own-goal to give the hosts one to their elation, it would not be enough to force the draw, putting Alliance over BDFC and into 6th.
Guelph also notched their second loss of the matchweek as they conceded a single goal to the Woodbridge Strikers while at home at the Centennial Bowl. While the Royal City side were able to hold their own for the first half, Adriano Colangelo ultimately brought home his side’s W with a goal in the 50′ Carter Robart. With only two games left in the season, Guelph needs points in both to stay out of the Pro/Rel Playoff against the Championships St. Catharines Roma Wolves.
Luckily for Guelph, the side they are racing against for second-last – Sigma FC – also logged a loss on Sunday as they took on Vaughan Azzurri. Chris Campoli led the Azzurri’s charge with a brace coming in the 4′ and the 80′ and he was aided by Mohamed, Baquero, and Ramirez to outdo Tavernier’s brace.
League1 Ontario – Championship
Darby FC 1 – 3 Pickering FC
St. Catharines Roma Wolves 4 – 1 Unionville Milliken SC
FC London 3 – 2 BVB IA Waterloo
Windsor City FC 2 – 2 TFC Academy
With Pickering hoping to stay afloat in the race to the bottom against half – I repeat HALF – of the Championship teams, they claimed a crucial three points to stay mathematically in the fight. Jovanovski and Smith were able to find their way past Darby’s Matt Zaikos a total of three times collectively while Matt Mattila backstopped a marvelous game, letting in only one against a relatively strong Darby offence. Pickering now must win their final match on Friday against FC London to avoid the Pro/Rel Playoff with League2 Ontario.
The Roma Wolves experience jubilation on Friday as they confirmed their place in the Premier Pro/Rel Playoff against – presently – Guelph United, with their 4-1 win over Unionville. A rainy night at Club Roma didn’t damper the spirits at all four individual Wolves forwards scored to give their side a needed W. Having run out of games, no matter UMSC’s result in their final match, the GD and head-to-head will keep the Markham side in fourth.
FC London were also able to celebrate this past matchweek as their 3-2 win at home over BVB IA Waterloo confirmed their place in the Premiership come 2025. Despite TFC Academy having claimed the divisional title, due to their departure from L1O, FC London will take their place in the top flight as the top-seeded team (second place). The title hero for FC London in the end would be given to Ibrahem Saadi as his 88′ goal put Forest City up by one over the Black and Yellow. You can see that goal in the (audioless) video above.
Rounding out the matchweek in the Championship had TFC ACADEMY play their second last match down in the Rose City’s Acumen Stadium as they visited Windsor. Spencer Potter and Tim Fortier put TFC-A up by two by the 51′, but the hosts rallied hard in the 70’s as they notched two in quick order (74′ and 76′) thanks to Aguilera and Andres to gain a vital one point to stay ahead of Pickering FC.
Ligue1 Quebec: The Province is Purple
Celtix du Haut-Richelieu 2 – 2 Royal Select Beauport
AS Blainville 2 – 1 CS St-Hubert
AS Laval 0 – 0 OSU Atlético
CS Mont-Royal Outremont 0 – 1 FC Laval
After a formidable season in Quebec’s top flight and notching only three loses across 20 games, FC Laval have claimed the top spot in Ligue1 Québec following their win this matchweek. With that, the Boys in Purple have secured their place in the 2025 Canadian Championship alongside the L1BC’s TSS Rovers, L1AB’s the Edmonton Scottish, and the TBD League1 Ontario champion. Here’s how all the individual action broke down this week!
With more games in hand than any other side in L1QC, the Celtix are still in the fight for a top-eight playoff spot, but are going to need all the points they can muster to outdo their bottom-table counterparts. Despite being down by two to Beauport come half-time, the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu side rallied hard to net two of their own, with Maxime Nobert ultimately getting the levelling goal to split the points.
Sitting just outside of the top three – divided by a single point – any climbing Blainville can pull off in these dying weeks will benefit them come the playoffs, and they executed that plan perfectly over St-Hubert’s Spatiale on Sunday. Their two goals in the first half courtesy of Alex Katsaros and Lohan Lefevre would hold their lead strong until final whistle, inspite of an added-time goal by CSSH’s Lundon Browne.
Ottawa’s OSU Atlético is desperately trying to keep the sides below them in the rearview mirror, and that included last week’s opponent AS Laval who sat just one win away from overtaking OSU. It ultimately became a goalie’s game with both keepers backstopping clean sheets on their way to a level meeting, leaving one-two game(s) for either side to capitalize on.
And thus we arrive to FC Laval’s title clinching meeting with the CSMRO Griffons. All it would take to sink their North Island rivals was a 61′ strike by Emilien Hedou to win the match and their second league title in three years.
Header Image Credit: Raphael Claudio / RWC Photography
