Forsey first at the finish
Mount Pearl striker tops Challenge Cup scoring list for the third time in five years
Not that there was much doubt earlier in the week, but Mount Pearl First Choice Haircutters striker Tyler Forsey officially earned the scoring title in the Molson Challenge Cup provincial senior men’s soccer league Wednesday night.
And he did so without playing a game.
In the final contest of the 2017 Challenge Cup regularseason, Holy Cross Kirby Group doubled the C.B.S. That Pro Look Strikers 4-2 at King George V Park Wednesday night. Jake Warren scored twice for Holy Cross, giving him 16 on the season, but he would have needed a lot more to overtake Forsey, who finished with 21.
It is the third Challenge Cup scoring title for Forsey, who also topped the tables in 2013 (with Holy Cross) and 2014 (with Feildians). Last year, he was runner-up to Stefan Slaney of St. Lawrence.
Wednesday’s result didn’t have any affect on the final standings. Holy Cross finishes second to the defending champion St. Lawrence Laurentians, and those teams will meet Friday, Sept. 1 in the 1-2 playoff, the opening game of the 2017 Challenge Cup championship tournament being held over the Labour Day weekend at King George V.
In a second game that Friday, Forsey and third-place Mount Pearl take on fourth-place Feildians Ernst and Young.
The winner of the 1-2 matchup will advance directly to Sunday’s final, while the loser will take its second chance into a Saturday semifinal. The other semifinalist will be the winner of the 3-4 game.
What Wednesday’s game did
do was give Holy Cross the title of highest scoring team in the league, with 50 goals on the season, one more than St. Lawrence. The Laurentians were by far the stingiest team in the league, allowing just 12 goals and posting 13 shutouts in 23 games.
And while the Srirkers didn’t make the playoffs, they did have the biggest season-to-season turnaround. C.B.S. went from a 2016 that saw them go winless while registering just three points to a 2017 performance that featured seven wins, 25 points and had the Strikers in playoff contention heading into the final weekend of the regular season.