Toronto Croatia captured the major honours at the CSL Annual Awards night at the Mississauga Convention Centre Sunday.

 

A repeat of the 2011 championship victory -  this time a 1-0 defeat of  Montreal Impact Academy on October 27 -  followed a regular season title win in the 16-team CSL First Division, while the Individual awards presented at the season-end dinner included Toronto Croatia midfielder Marin Vucemilovic-Grgic, who took the CSL Most Valuable Player Award, and Antonio Ilic, voted the Goalkeeper of the Year.

 

Vucemilovic-Grgic was prominent throughout for his outstanding two-way play and scoring 16 goals in the regular season, and Ilic was a big reason for the champions’ outstanding defensive record, conceding just 13 goals in the 22-game regular season schedule.

 

Drazen Vukovic of SC Waterloo won the leading goalscorer trophy with 20 goals in the CSL First Division. Vukovic, 30, who arrived in Canada in 2010 on a transfer from NK Solin of Croatia to play for Brantford Galaxy, was transferred to Waterloo for the 2012 season.

 

Maxim Tissot of Montreal Impact Academy was voted the best defender in the CSL’s top division by the member clubs and Jonathan Osorio, a midfielder with SC Toronto, took the  Rookie of the Year Award.

 

Quebec-born Tissot, 20, played in the CSL for Trois-Rivieres Attak before joining the Impact academy team, while Rookie winner Osorio, 20, is a standout midfielder who found the net 11 times for SC Toronto.

 

Coach of the Year in the First Division went to Stefano Vagnini of Windsor Stars, a team which ended the regular season with a late flourish to finish fourth in the standing, making the playoffs in their second year in the CSL.

 

Windsor’s Gino Berardi was voted the CSL Second Division MVP and was the top goalscorer in that division with 17 goals.

Toronto Croatia romped by a score of 7-0 over St. Catharines Wolves to go seven points clear in the First Division standings in the only game played in the Canadian Soccer League Wednesday night.
 
Midfielder Marin Vucemilovic Grgic started the ball rolling for the current CSL champions with a goal at the 10 minute mark, then scored a second from 25 yards to make it 2-0 nine minutes later.
 
Defender Sven Arapovic increased the Toronto Croatia lead to 3-0, he found the net past St. Catharines goalkeeper Claudio Perri from well outside the box at 26 minutes and midfielder Andelo Srzentic found the net following a goalmouth scramble at 37 minutes for a 4-0 score at the break.
 
Josip Keran put Toronto Croatia 5-0 ahead with a header from a right wing cross at 48 minutes and Boris Tomac, coming on as a substitute added a sixth at 59 minutes.
 
 Bozenko Lesina, also taking the field as a substitute, completed the scoring from close in at the 78th minute mark, a 7-0 final score.
 
It was the 14th and 15th goals of the season for Vucemilovic Grgic, while Srzentic now has eight for the season, and the win moves Toronto Croatia to an impressive 14-1-5 WLT record for 47 points on top of the First Division, seven in front of second place SC Toronto in the standings. The defending champions have two regular season games remaining (vs. Windsor Stars on September 30 @ Centennial Park-kickoff @ 8:00 pm, and vs. York Region Shooters October 7 @ Centennial Park-kickoff 8:00 pm)