Seventeen-year-old Olivia Chisholm scored in the 39th minute to lift AFC Toronto to a 1-0 victory over the Montreal Roses in the Northern Super League Diana B. Matheson Cup championship.
Toronto finished first in the league standings last season but fell to the Vancouver Rise in the inaugural championship game. This season, Toronto advanced to the title match by defeating Ottawa 8-2 on aggregate across their two-leg semifinal series.
“I mean, obviously last year didn’t go our way, so this year means so much,” Toronto midfielder Nikayla Small said.
“Shoutout to Olivia Chisholm for scoring that beautiful goal because that’s what really got us here today,” Small added.
Chisholm converted a pass from Lauren Rowe, beating Montreal Roses goalkeeper Gabrielle Lambert from the middle of the box.
“I saw Lauren had the ball, and she took a bit of a bigger touch,” Chisholm said.
“But I know with her speed that she was going to get there, and their whole backline kind of just dropped off so I knew that the space was there for me. And as it left my foot I kind of had a good feeling that it was going to go in, and then it did,” Chisholm said.
The Montreal Roses finished atop the regular season standings to win the Supporters Shield. They entered the final at TD Place in Ottawa riding a 12-match unbeaten streak.
Montreal advanced to the championship match by defeating Vancouver 5-2 on aggregate in their semifinal series.