September 28, 2008 CSL Week 20 Summary (from CSL media release)

DOWN TO THE WIRE ..............Brampton Lions squeeze in following 6-0 romp but it goes down to the last week to decide eighth playoff spot
2008-09-28

CSL Teams Battle For Remaining Playoff Spots

Brampton Lions made no mistake in their last- game attempt to gain a playoff spot Sunday afternoon, cruising to a 6-0 win over still winless London City at Victoria Park in Brampton. The victory gave the team from north-west of Toronto the seventh playoff spot after St. Catharines and Windsor failed to pick-up maximum points in the two other games played later in the day. In those games, St. Catharines and North York Astros fought to a scoreless tie at Esther Shiner Stadium, while Italia Shooters scored a second half goal from the penalty spot to tie the game with Windsor, a 1-1 final score at Maple. The CSL regular season schedule will go down to the wire before the last eighth playoff position is decided, with St. Catharines Wolves and Windsor Border Stars in contention.

Daniel Cameira opened the scoring at 20 minutes for Brampton Lions against London City at Victoria Park on Sunday, Alex Arbello made it 2-0 eight minutes later, Mohamed Kanu increased the score to 3-0 at 38 minutes for 3-0 at the interval.

Brampton jumped to a 4-0 lead on a goal at 58 minutes by Jeremy Shepperd, Nicholas Poku made it 5-0 two minutes later and Shepperd rounded out the scoring with his second goal at 68 minutes, a 6-0 final score.

There were few opportunities to score at Esther Shiner Stadium for a 0-0 result between the Astros and St. Catharines Wolves while to the north at Maple, Dominic Scicluna opened the scoring for the visiting Windsor Border Stars at 16 minutes for a 1-0 halftime score and Jason Di Thomasis scored from the penalty spot at 74 minutes following a tripping incident to tie the game 1-1.

TROIS-RIVIERES WIN ON SATURDAY
It took a top performance by Trois-Rivieres Attak to defeat a tough Serbian White Eagles on Saturday, but the Quebec team came through with one of its best of the season to win 1-0 in a crucial game for both teams in a well-played and well attended game at Trois Rivieres.

The victory gave the Attak the top position in the overall standings, to follow their recent National Division title win, while the loss for Serbia - in its last regular league game of the season - means the Toronto team will have to await the outcome of games still to be played by Italia Shooters and Toronto Croatia before the International Division title is decided. In one other game in the CSL on Saturday, Windsor Border Stars kept their playoff hopes alive with a 3-1 victory over TFC Academy at Maple. The loss eliminated the TFC Academy team from the playoffs.

HAYDEN FITZWILLIAMS HAT-TRICK
On Friday night, forward Hayden Fitzwilliams of Toronto Croatia stole the limelight with three goals while four teams made little headway in their determination to capture one of two playoff berths still available.

Fitzwilliams scored his hat-trick in a 10-minute second half period when he found the net at 57, 63 and 66 minutes in a well-deserved 5-1 Croatia victory over visiting St. Catharines Wolves in a chippy encounter that produced 11 yellow cards and one send-off.

In two other games played Friday night, Portugal FC gained their second win in three days with a 3-0 victory over London City at Lamport Stadium and at Maple just north of Toronto, TFC Academy and Windsor Border Stars played to a 1-1 tie.

WHO'S IN ?
All four International Division teams, with Trois-Rivieres Attak, North York Astros and Brampton Lions from the National Division, have a berth in the CSL playoffs that begin the weekend October 10. There is still one playoff spot to be decided.

WHAT IF THEY ARE TIED ?
Some results might soon require the CSL to dig into the tie-breaker rules to decide the final league positions if teams are tied on points and the first tie-breaker consideration is the total wins in regular season play – the most wins between two teams tied on points will break the tie.

If that fails to produce a decision, it’s the head to head most points record between the two teams, followed by the head to head games won between the two teams. The league then resorts to goal difference in regular season play and if still tied, the most goals scored in regular season play will break the tie.

WHO SCORED THE GOALS ?
It was Pierre-Rudolph Mayard who scored the big goal for Trois-Rivieres Attak against Serbian White Eagles on Saturday, he took a pass from the left wing to slot the ball past Serbia goalkeeper Dan Pelc at the 35th minute mark.

TFC Academy opened the scoring at Maple on Saturday, a goal by Allaryeo Matheson at 12 minutes, but Nick Jordan of Windsor tied the game at the 28th minute mark. Tom Medved put Border Stars up 2-1 at 33 minutes and a goal by Christian Mayorda from the penalty spot increased the lead to 3-1 for the border team and that was the final score.

Adding to Hayden Fitzwilliams' hat-trick, other goals for Toronto Croatia in their 5-1 win over St. Catharines on Friday night went to defender Halberto Harris who struck at 40 minutes and forward Tomislav Ples who scored at the 80th minute mark, while Arnaldo Magnotta scored the lone St. Catharines goal from the penalty spot at 38 minutes. Forward Hugo Herrera of Toronto Croatia was ejected from the game.

While a gallant London City fought to stay in the game and were down just 1-0 looking for a tying goal in the game with Portugal FC also on Friday night, the Toronto team scored twice in the late stages for a 3-0 result. Wigor Gomes opened the scoring for Portugal at 20 minutes - his 8th of the season - when he took a pass from Ramon Bailey. Danny Amaral struck his 10th of the season to make it 2-0 at 81 minutes, his shot was deflected into the net off the post and Mike DiLuca drove a left foot shot from just inside the box to make it 3-0.

In the third game on Friday, Stefan Tojcic scored the lone TFC Academy goal at 38 minutes for a 1-0 lead and Jordan Kotstopolous tied the score for Windsor at 59 minutes, a 1-1 final.

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