League1 BC Men’s Division Round-up: Unbeaten TSS Rovers lead the way with only a point separating top three

The first six weeks of the 2024 League1 BC season are now in the record books and it’s tight at the top of the men’s division, with just one point separating the top three teams.

Unbeaten TSS Rovers lead the way on 11 points from their five matches played, but back-to-back draws has seen the battle at the top tighten up considerably and there’s a lot still to play for with both playoff spots and a Canadian Championship berth on the line. Having tasted that competition twice now, TSS will be hoping to make it back there in 2025.

There’s been 61 goals scored across the 20 matches played so far, with the Rovers leading the way with 14 of those, and Vancouver Whitecaps and Harbourside putting up 11 each. Thirty-three different players have found the back of the net to date (along with one own goal), with 28 different players tallying an assist.

Harbourside’s Billy Baggiopolous leads the race for the Golden Boot with six goals so far this season. TSS’ Devin O’Hea and Unity’s Victory Shumbusho are nipping at his heels with four each, with the Whitecaps’ David Ajagbe and Altitude’s Carson Buschman-Dormand sitting on three.

Another Harbourside player, midfielder Suka Behery, leads the league with three assists, alongside the Whitecaps’ Angelo Zhu, with four players sitting one back on two.

Harbourside’s league-leading Billy Baggiopolous and Suka Behery

Here’s a breakdown of the seven teams at the end of the Week 6 action:

(1ST) TSS ROVERS – 11 POINTS

TSS sit atop the L1BC standings on 11 points, with an unbeaten record of three wins and two draws from their first five matches. As pleasing as this will be for new head coach Brendan Teeling, the Rovers will also rue the four points they’ve dropped from their last two games, having to survive 52 minutes a man down in a 0-0 draw with Burnaby, before coming from two down at home to Unity last weekend to salvage a point in a 2-2 draw.

The Rovers lead the league in scoring with 14 goals, and have the best defensive record in the division, having conceded just three times and Justyn Sandhu keeping three clean sheets.

Seven players have scored for TSS so far this season, with Devin O’Hea leading the way with four of them. It’s hard to believe that the Rovers will have his services for the whole season, with a lot of clubs watching the SFU alumni’s performances with interest. Matteo Polisi and Gurman Sangha have two goals each, with four players sitting on one goal, and the only own goal in the league coming in the Rovers’ favour. Sangha and Polisi lead the team with two assists each, with four other players tallying one.

TSS will still be the favourites to clinch another Canadian Championship berth, but they’re certainly not going to have things all their own way and finish the season with three tough games on the road.

(2ND) VANCOUVER WHITECAPS – 10 POINTS

After taking only one point from their first two matches, the Whitecaps hit a rich vein of form with three straight wins, with their squad bolstered by some returning academy alumni from college. Sitting in second, a point behind TSS, the young ‘Caps have recorded three wins, one draw, and one defeat through their first five matches, with that one loss coming at the hands of the Rovers.

They’ve scored 11 goals, the second highest in the division, and conceded nine, with four of those coming against TSS. Seven players have found the back of the net for the ‘Caps this season, with David Ajagbe leading the way on three. Riley Ferraro and Matteo Samori have two apiece, with four players on one. Angela Zhu leads the team with three assists, Amoni Thomas and Sydney Wathuta have contributed two, with Ajagbe and Ferraro on one.

The Whitecaps have scored in every match so far, but have only kept one clean sheet, that coming in their last game at home to Rivers. With two weeks off, it will be interesting to see how they come back in their 2nd-v-3rd clash with Altitude on Sunday.

(3RD) ALTITUDE – 10 POINTS

The North Shore lads sit third in the table, one point off top spot, as they look to book their first postseason berth. They’ve had a strong start to the season, with three wins, one draw, and two defeats from their first half of the season and have played some very nice football along the way.

Altitude have put up just seven goals and given up 10, to sit on a minus goal differential. Six of those 10 came in a 6-0 shellacking by TSS in week four, but they bounced back with two victories after that to climb the table, before last weekend’s clash at home to Burnaby was rained out. They’ve kept two clean sheets, but have also been kept off the scoreboard three times.

The goals haven’t been plentiful, and only four players have found the back of the net for Altitude so far this season. Carson Buschman-Dormond leads the team with three goals, and he has formed a deadly strike partnership with Athos de Siqueira, who has two goals. Ali Azarminoo and Matthew Marshall are the team’s other goalscorers, while four different players have registered an assist.

How they fare in back-to-back games coming up against the Whitecaps could determine whether the team enjoys playoff football for the first time in club history.

(4TH) UNITY – 8 POINTS

Unity are another of the teams that have reached the halfway point of their season and they sit in the last playoff spot right now, just three points off top spot and with a record of two wins, two draws, and two defeats.

Now based out of Cloverdale after their offseason move from Langley, Unity have scored nine goals, finding the net in all but one game. They’ve also conceded nine, keeping just one clean sheet so far this season.

Five players have found the back of the net for Unity, with Victory Shumbusho leading the way on four. His fourth came last Friday night at Swangard with a stunning bicycle kick against TSS that gave Unity a 2-0 lead, but they couldn’t hold on and had to settle for a point, when a win would have set up a four-way tie at the top.

Patrick Izett has two goals on the season, with three other players sitting on one. Four players, including Shumbusho, have tallied one assist for Unity this year.

(5TH) HARBOURSIDE – 7 POINTS

Harbourside have been a hard team to work out this season. League-leading scorer Billy Baggiopolous forms an amazing partnership with assist leader Suka Behery, but while the goals seem to come freely for the Nanaimo side, they also seem to get conceded quite freely at the other end of the park and that’s what sees them sitting outside of the playoff positions at the halfway point of their season.

They’ve two wins, one draw, and three defeats from their first six matches, scoring 11 goals and conceding 12. They’ve scored in every game bar one, and conceded in every game bar one. Last weekend’s big 3-2 win at Rivers snapped a three-game losing streak and their overall performance there will give them some hope for the second half of the campaign. They will play Unity for the first time this coming Sunday, in what is likely to be a huge match for both teams’ postseason hopes.

Their reliance on Baggiopolous, who leads the team and the lead with six goals, will need to be expanded on. He is one of only three players to score for Harbourside this season, with Behery sitting on two goals alongside Charlie Purcell. Behery leads the team, and the league, with three assists, while goalkeeper Callum Weir has two! Three other players, including Purcell, sit on one assist.

(6TH) RIVERS – 4 POINTS

The Kamloops side always have it tough with so much travel and four of their first six matches have come on the road to start the season. A fifth is coming up this weekend in a massive bottom of the table showdown with Burnaby. If either side loses that match, then they can probably kiss goodbye to their postseason hopes.

Rivers haven’t played badly in their matches so far, but goals have been very hard to come by for them. With one win, one draw, and four defeats on their record, they’re on a three-game losing streak right now and their only win came with a wind-assisted goal in a 1-0 win over Altitude in their season opener. They failed to score in their next four matches, before coming back from two down to level at home to Harbourside last weekend, before giving up the winning goal two minutes later and losing 3-2.

Just three players – Hagon Kim, Ryan Lewis, and Elijah Dos Santos – have scored for Rivers this season, with Tristan Jumeau and Justin Wallace the only players to register assists. Their goalkeepers have certainly been in demand though, with Svyatik Artemenko going to Valour on a short term loan and Jackson Gardner heading back down to Australia after signing with Mandurah City this week.

(7TH) BURNABY – 2 POINTS

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the L1BC season so far is that Burnaby are still looking for their first ever win. The new kids on the block, who I fully expected to be challenging at the other end of the table, have struggled to gel so far and have just two points from two draws and defeats to their name. They have also played the fewer number of games in the league, after last Sunday’s postponement at Altitude, and face the team directly above them at home this weekend, so there’s still a lot of hope that they can start to climb the table soon.

They’ll need to get far better defensively though, having given up 10 goals through their first three matches, before grabbing a point in their first clean sheet of the season, a 0-0 draw with a 10-man TSS side. Goals have also not been in plentiful supply for the Burnaby side, with just six so far. Lachlan Will leads the team with two, while four others have one apiece. One of those is Emiliano Brienza, whose injury in week two of the season hit the team hard. Three players have tallied an assist.

With a bulk of the squad made up of SFU and UBC players, their numbers have been bolstered by some players returning to the lower mainland from NCAA schools. The recent addition of former WFC2 player Simone Masi from a spell in Italy will also certainly help on the defensive side.