League1 Ontario soccer is almost back, and if you’re unfamiliar with Scrosoppi’s story in the Pro-Am game, here’s four things you should know ahead of the 2025 campaign.

The rise of Scrosoppi

With 16 wins and only one loss, Scrosoppi powered themselves to the top of the Men’s Premier Division standings to win the title by four points ahead of Vaughan Azzurri in 2024.

SFC conceded just 12 goals in 22 matches, registering the league’s best defence, and were one of the most prolific going forward with 54 goals. Popular forward Tomasz Skublak led the club’s scoring charts once again with 12 strikes, ahead of Jacob Carlos who notched a further 10.

It was the second time in two years that SFC topped the regular-season standings after a similarly successful 51-point season in 2023. John Yacou’s side were eventually defeated in the Men’s Premier Division Final against Simcoe Country Rovers, but they returned in 2024 more determined than ever.

The last two seasons have shown Scrosoppi’s rise from previous campaigns. In 2021 SFC secured fourth spot in the Men’s West Conference with six wins and five losses, before finishing 12th in the 22-team division when the conferences combined in 2022.

Pipped to promotion

Scrosoppi fielded a League1 Ontario women’s team for the first time in 2024, and only needed 90 minutes to display their potential: they defeated Burlington 4-0 in the opening game of the Women’s L1 Cup with a brace each for Ella Cahill and Jahkaya Davis.

A week later, SFC narrowly lost their first game of the Women’s Championship in a five-goal thriller, but only failed to pick up points from two more games during the rest of the season.

With 10 wins in 18 games, SFC pushed eventual champions BVB IA Waterloo (now Waterloo United) all the way to the finish, with just a point separating first and second in the final standings.

With Waterloo promoted automatically, SFC pitched themselves against North Mississauga for the final place in next year’s L1ON top flight. But the Panthers proved too powerful and saved themselves from relegation with a 3-1 victory, leaving SFC to restart their promotion quest in 2025.

Undefeated season

The Scrosoppi men’s second team won the League2 Division Southwest Conference by winning 13 and tying once in a 14 game season, finishing the campaign with a huge 40 points.

Miles Green and Noah Dedomincis both scored in the playoff semifinal, but Vaughan Azzurri ran out 4-2 winners and moved on to the League2 Division Final.

Meanwhile in the Women’s League2 Division, SFC ended the season just five points shy of the eventual Southwest Conference winners. It was a very tight competition with seven teams within seven points of the leaders.

Both men’s and women’s SFC squads showed lots of promise, and some League2 stars may even be making their mark at Championship and Premier level this year as the club’s player pathway continues into the new campaign.

Players climbing to potential

There were lots of positive stories for Scrosoppi players in the offseason. Paiman Sultani played a combined 14 games across the Men’s Premier and League2 Division in 2024 and earned a call-up to the Afghanistan national team training camp in March.

That was after budding stars Marcus Channer and Matias Cortes signed professional deals with our friends at SC Vianense in Portugal. Channer in particular was a star in the Men’s Premier, playing more than 1,000 hours to help SFC to the title.

There were several League1 Ontario awards given to Scrosoppi players, with Tomasz Skublak, Ella Cahill, and Sahara Zingano among the deserved winners, in addition to division-winning coach John Yacou. Julian Gonzalez was also recognized as the Defender of the Year in the Men’s League2 Division.