September 2, 2024...League1 Ontario...Guelph United vs Simcoe County Rovers game report (by Rocket Robin)

Result and details of the Monday September 2, 2024 League1 Ontario Men's Premier Division game between Guelph United
and Simcoe County Rovers played at Centennial Bowl in Guelph at 5:30pm.

I will be posting pictures, logos, and more of a play-by-play about this game someday (ie. the offseason).

30 min...Guelph Yuki Ibie GOAL...Ibie dribbles in from 30 yards up middle between five defenders in his path and rolls 10 yard shot into right side of net past diving goalie.

35 min...SCR Jevonte Layne wins Penalty kick call when GU goalie Anthony Arruda dives to push ball away at 10 yards as Layne has freed himself from defender and Arruda trips him up. Referee John-Morgan Pizzuti makes the call.

36 min...SCR Jevonte Layne stagger steps Penalty kick and blasts shot down the middle but off the top of the bar and out of play.

47 min...Simcoe Tajay Reid GOAL...SCR Ijah Halley sends cornerkick from left into box and Reid rushes into crowd of players nods header in from left side about 6 yards away to right corner of net.

48 min...Simcoe Orlendis Benitez Hernandez* GOAL...SCR Hernandez cross from 20 yards on far right has GU Noah Obedi lift his leg to stop ball in midair but pokes it into his own net from 4 yards on right side. *(I was sure it would be credited as an own goal)

57 min...Guelph Jared Agyemang GOAL...GU Jacob Cabral rolls through ball from 28 yards for Agyemang in middle who then turns and rolls 15 yarder past goalie who was out at 8 yards into right side of net.

83 min...Guelph Jared Agyemang wins Penalty kick call as he pokes ball through defenders in box and is knocked down.

84 min...Guelph Jared Agyemang GOAL...Agyemang rolls Penalty kick to slight right after slow run up as goalie Peter Sheberstov slumps in middle on goal line.

95 min...Simcoe Diego Herrera GOAL...SCR Ijah Halley cornerkick from right has defender clear. Halley gets ball back and recrosses from right to have ball land between players in box. Herrera shoots 10 yarder up middle between players into left side of net.

Final Score:...Guelph United.......3........Simcoe County Rovers.........3.........

Attendance started off slow but climbed to about 200 by halftime. Many fans avoided the aluminum bench stands and sat in the Muskoka chairs lining the ridge of the hill behind the south goal (where beer was served). A few even brought their own lawn chairs to set up on the east side and a very few like me sat on the grass hill on the west side.

This was the third game of the week for Rovers. They played last Saturday at their home in Barrie losing to red hot Scrosoppi FC for their first loss in ten games. Then Wednesday night they beat Blue Devils FC in Oakville to advance to the final of the L1 Cup next Friday.

Rovers were playing alright during the first half but made a triple switch at halftime bringing in Ijah Halley, Javier George, and CJ Smith. That payed off quickly as they took the lead within three minutes of the restart.

Guelph were doing well managing the added time in the second half with GU captain Gray Yates and Yuki Ibie wasting time with running the ball to the cornerflag and playing keep-away while there against Rovers defenders. However allowing one last SCR cornerkick on practically the last kick of the game settled it. A fair result for both teams.

Peter Sheberstov has taken over as the Rovers goalie since the beginning of August as before that the 17 year old was playing L1O soccer at the U-20 level. Rovers were using Rimi Olatunji at the beginning of the season who as recently as 2023 was playing in the CPL. 19 year old goalie Anthony Arruda appears to have come up to Guelph's first team after playing at their L2 club (and mainly as a backup) until last month. Neither looked out of place in tonight's game.

Referee John-Morgan Pizzuti gave out four Yellow cards (two to both teams) as well as a Penalty kick call to each team in a fairly played game.

This was the final regular season game for both teams. Both teams played hard today as it was not their last game of the season. Full benches too was nice to see as the last few weeks, some teams have had trouble filling them.

Rovers play one last game on Friday night against Vaughan Azzurri for the revised L1 Cup. Their star forward Orlendis Benitez Hernandez was subbed out at 55 minutes with a leg injury almost six minutes after it happened. I asked him after the game about whether he would play on Friday but he wasn't certain.

The Friday after that Guelph play a promotion/relegation game against the designated runner up team in the second tier Championship Division—St Catharines Roma Wolves who actually finished third...but...Toronto FC Academy won the Championship but refused the promotion and gave notice they will be withdrawing from the league to concentrate on a new age level that the American based MLS NEXT Pro has created. That moved FC London into the automatic playoff spot and gives Wolves the playoff chance. Both these Friday games will be held at the Zanchin Automotive Soccer Centre in Vaughan.

Guelph finish their regular season at 4 wins, 4 ties, 14 losses for 16 points. That does put them in eleventh place out of the twelve teams in the Premier Division but they were doomed to that spot for the last few weeks.

Rovers finish their regular season at 9 win, 7 ties, 6 losses for 34 points. That's the same number of points as North Toronto but Rovers are ranked as fifth because North Toronto has one more win.

***Hey I've done it! I didn't think it was possible because of scheduling a few weeks ago but catching Hamilton United yesterday and tonight's game means that I have seen all twelve Premier Division teams a minimum of three times this season! That's from attending 26 regular season games plus two L1 Cup games. None of them play Friday night and I have York United FC and Toronto FC II games to work around.

Today I was afraid of a huge traffic jam on my way home back to the GTA because it was the end of the Labour Day weekend but there was no delay whatever. The only delay was on my way out here when there was a delay through Milton...hey the home of league champions Scrosoppi FC but the expressway eventually cleared for full speed driving.

Rocket Robin
robin.glover.1958@gmail.com
X @RocketRobin01

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