United ties one on with Blue Devils to start season
OAKVILLE – Guelph United opened their League1 Ontario Men’s Premier soccer season by battling fierce rivals Blue Devils FC of Oakville to a 2-2 standoff Sunday on the field at the Sheridan College Trafalgar Campus.
United actually held a 2-0 lead 33 minutes into the match, but the Blue Devils came back with a goal near the end of the first half and the tying goal with three minutes to go in the second half.
Guelph United 2 Blue Devils FC 2
Jared Agyemang opened the scoring 17 minutes into the match and Cole Fernandez added United’s other goal 15 minutes later. Both are former Guelph Gryphons and they are two of the eight players on this year’s roster who are on the United roster for their third consecutive season.
The other six are Harvey Marchant, Arman Moghadsi, Amardo Oakley, Jack Sears, Dion Stergiotis and Gray Yates. Colin Gander and Damian Truong are also players who were with United the first year who are back for the team’s third year this season. Neither was with the club last year.
Agyemang was United’s leading scorer last year and his goal gives him 12 for United in the club’s history. That’s third behind Jace Kotsopoulos (23) and Tomasz Skublak (15). This season Kotsopoulos is playing for Burlington SC while Skublak is playing for Scrosoppi FC of Milton.
Fernandez’s goal was his second career marker with United.
Gianluca Spadafora and Adam Czerkawski netted the goals for the Blue Devils.
Carter Robart was in net for United while Lucas Birnstingl tended goal for the Oakville side.
The match was United’s fifth with the Blue Devils in their history. They lost 2-0 at home last season. In the COVID-delayed 2021 season when the league was split into two conferences and didn’t play a team from the other conference until the playoffs, United defeated the Blue Devils 5-0 in Oakville and lost 1-0 at home in the regular season and they dropped the Blue Devils 3-1 in the league’s championship match in Woodbridge to complete the season.
Another change for United this season will be the site of their home games as they’re not scheduled to play any home contests at Alumni Stadium. Their first two home games (April 21 and 27) are to be at the Gryphon Soccer Complex while their other eight home games are to be at the Centennial Park Bowl.
United’s U21 and U19 squads are to play their home games at Eastview Park.
United is to play Alliance United FC in their Men’s Premier home opener Friday at 8 p.m. at the Gryphon Soccer Complex. Alliance defeated St. Catharines Roma 3-0 in their season opener in Scarborough Saturday.
Next year L1O is to switch to a promotion/relegation format with a three-tier system with L1O Premier, L1O Championship and League2 being the tiers. All of this year’s Premier teams will be in either Premier or Championship next year while expansion squads and some reserve squads will make up League2. The Championship winner in 2024 will move up to Premier for 2025, replacing the last-placed team that will drop to the Championship loop. League2 winner will move to Championship while Championship’s last-place finisher will be relegated to League2.
Each division will consist of between 10 and 12 teams and will play home-and-home series with each of its division mates instead of the single-game format this year.
To break down this year’s 21-team field into the top two divisions next year, all of the points they accumulate this year will be added to 75 percent of the points they accumulated last year to create what can be considered the promotion/relegation standings.
United finished seventh in a 22-team league last season and will have started this season with 31 points from last season while second-place Blue Devils will have started with 35.
The Men’s Premier division is down to 21 teams this year as Pickering FC is on hiatus for the third time in five seasons as they were unable to find a club partner to operate the team. They also sat out the 2018 and 2021 seasons while the entire league’s 2020 season was cancelled by the pandemic. Pickering FC has previously operated as Durham United FC and Durham United FA and is fielding teams in the U21 and U19 reserve divisions.
Week 1 Scores
Guelph United 2 Blue Devils FC 2
North Toronto Nitros 2 Vaughan Azzuri 2
Burlington SC 3 North Mississauga SC 0
Sigma FC 5 Hamilton United 3
Scrosoppi FC 1 Electric City FC 0
Darby FC 3 Woodbridge Strikers 0
Alliance United FC 3 St. Catharines Roma 0
Unionville Milliken SC 2 Windsor City FC 0
Simcoe County Rovers FC 3 BVB IA Waterloo 1
ProStars FC 2 Master’s FA 0
- Guelph Sports Journal
United ties one on with Blue Devils to start season
OAKVILLE – Guelph United opened their League1 Ontario Men’s Premier soccer season by battling fierce rivals Blue Devils FC of Oakville to a 2-2 standoff Sunday on the field at the Sheridan College Trafalgar Campus.
United actually held a 2-0 lead 33 minutes into the match, but the Blue Devils came back with a goal near the end of the first half and the tying goal with three minutes to go in the second half.
Guelph United 2
Blue Devils FC 2
Jared Agyemang opened the scoring 17 minutes into the match and Cole Fernandez added United’s other goal 15 minutes later. Both are former Guelph Gryphons and they are two of the eight players on this year’s roster who are on the United roster for their third consecutive season.
The other six are Harvey Marchant, Arman Moghadsi, Amardo Oakley, Jack Sears, Dion Stergiotis and Gray Yates. Colin Gander and Damian Truong are also players who were with United the first year who are back for the team’s third year this season. Neither was with the club last year.
Agyemang was United’s leading scorer last year and his goal gives him 12 for United in the club’s history. That’s third behind Jace Kotsopoulos (23) and Tomasz Skublak (15). This season Kotsopoulos is playing for Burlington SC while Skublak is playing for Scrosoppi FC of Milton.
Fernandez’s goal was his second career marker with United.
Gianluca Spadafora and Adam Czerkawski netted the goals for the Blue Devils.
Carter Robart was in net for United while Lucas Birnstingl tended goal for the Oakville side.
The match was United’s fifth with the Blue Devils in their history. They lost 2-0 at home last season. In the COVID-delayed 2021 season when the league was split into two conferences and didn’t play a team from the other conference until the playoffs, United defeated the Blue Devils 5-0 in Oakville and lost 1-0 at home in the regular season and they dropped the Blue Devils 3-1 in the league’s championship match in Woodbridge to complete the season.
Another change for United this season will be the site of their home games as they’re not scheduled to play any home contests at Alumni Stadium. Their first two home games (April 21 and 27) are to be at the Gryphon Soccer Complex while their other eight home games are to be at the Centennial Park Bowl.
United’s U21 and U19 squads are to play their home games at Eastview Park.
United is to play Alliance United FC in their Men’s Premier home opener Friday at 8 p.m. at the Gryphon Soccer Complex. Alliance defeated St. Catharines Roma 3-0 in their season opener in Scarborough Saturday.
Next year L1O is to switch to a promotion/relegation format with a three-tier system with L1O Premier, L1O Championship and League2 being the tiers. All of this year’s Premier teams will be in either Premier or Championship next year while expansion squads and some reserve squads will make up League2. The Championship winner in 2024 will move up to Premier for 2025, replacing the last-placed team that will drop to the Championship loop. League2 winner will move to Championship while Championship’s last-place finisher will be relegated to League2.
Each division will consist of between 10 and 12 teams and will play home-and-home series with each of its division mates instead of the single-game format this year.
To break down this year’s 21-team field into the top two divisions next year, all of the points they accumulate this year will be added to 75 percent of the points they accumulated last year to create what can be considered the promotion/relegation standings.
United finished seventh in a 22-team league last season and will have started this season with 31 points from last season while second-place Blue Devils will have started with 35.
The Men’s Premier division is down to 21 teams this year as Pickering FC is on hiatus for the third time in five seasons as they were unable to find a club partner to operate the team. They also sat out the 2018 and 2021 seasons while the entire league’s 2020 season was cancelled by the pandemic. Pickering FC has previously operated as Durham United FC and Durham United FA and is fielding teams in the U21 and U19 reserve divisions.
Week 1 Scores
Guelph United 2 Blue Devils FC 2
North Toronto Nitros 2 Vaughan Azzuri 2
Burlington SC 3 North Mississauga SC 0
Sigma FC 5 Hamilton United 3
Scrosoppi FC 1 Electric City FC 0
Darby FC 3 Woodbridge Strikers 0
Alliance United FC 3 St. Catharines Roma 0
Unionville Milliken SC 2 Windsor City FC 0
Simcoe County Rovers FC 3 BVB IA Waterloo 1
ProStars FC 2 Master’s FA 0
- Guelph Sports Journal