Toronto Croatia continued its winning way with a 2-1 victory over Brampton Hitmen in the quarter-final of the Rogers Cup for the championship of the Canadian Professional Soccer League at Victoria Park in Brampton Tuesday night. The game marked the beginning of the CPSL playoffs with Toronto Croatia now entered into a Wild Card game with London City at London on Friday night.
In a second game played Tuesday, Vaughan Sun Devils clinched the seventh and final playoff spot by defeating Durham Flames 3-1 in the last regular league game of the 2003 CPSL campaign played at Dufferin Clark.
Sun Devils will meet Western Conference runner-up Toronto Supra in a one-game knockout quarter-final game at Centennial Stadium Wednesday, a 6.45 pm kickoff.
Toronto Croatia jumped into a 1-0 lead on a well taken goal by Orlin Chambers and Roberto Flores replied for the Hitmen at 37 minutes, a 1-1 score at half-time which held up to the end of 90 minutes.
Following two scoreless 15-minute overtime periods the game went into penalty kicks with Toronto Croatia best with a 4-3 score. The final score of the game was recorded as 2-1 for Toronto Croatia.
In the final league game of the season, Sun Devils took a quick 3-0 lead on goals by Elvis Thomas (6 minutes), and two goals by Mathew Palleschi at 12 and 15 minutes for a 3-0 half-time score.
Jamal Jupiter scored the lone Durham goal at the 72nd minute mark for a 3-1 final.
The win gives Vaughan a 7-4-7 WLT score to end the season in third position in the Eastern Conference, while Durham Flames ended the season with just a single league win for 4 points from a 1-16-1 record at the foot of the same conference.
