AFC Toronto beat Ottawa Rapid FC 4-0 on Saturday, November 7 at TD Place in Ottawa, winning their Northern Super League semifinal 8-2 on aggregate and returning to the NSL Final. Kaylee Hunter scored twice inside the first half hour to end the tie as a contest before halftime.
Toronto carried a 4-2 lead into the second leg and never let Ottawa believe. The result sends AFC Toronto back to the final one year after losing the league’s inaugural title game, with the championship match set for November 14 at the same stadium. The Canadian Press report carried by TSN has the full match account.
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Hunter ends the AFC Toronto Ottawa Rapid tie early
Hunter opened the scoring in the sixth minute and struck again in the 29th, her second two-goal game of the semifinal. Lena Silano made it 3-0 in the 44th minute, sending Toronto into halftime with a five-goal aggregate cushion, and Nikayla Small sealed the second leg at 4-0 in the 52nd minute.
Across the two legs, Hunter’s line is the story of the round: two goals and a hand in every Toronto goal in the first leg, then two more goals in the opening half hour of the return. Ottawa needed three goals at kickoff on Saturday. By the half hour mark, the Rapid needed five.
Two legs of the NSL semifinal, one direction
The first leg, played October 31 at York Lions Stadium in Toronto, finished 4-2 to the hosts. April Lantaigne scored in the 11th minute, Hunter doubled the lead in the 25th and restored the three-goal cushion in the 66th after Choo Hyo-Joo pulled one back for Ottawa in the 58th, and Silano scored in the 54th. Keera Melenhorst’s 90th minute goal kept Ottawa’s second leg mathematically alive at 4-2.
Saturday’s return leg removed the mathematics. Toronto outscored Ottawa 4-0 in the second leg for an 8-2 aggregate, the widest margin of the NSL playoff round, and did it on the road at TD Place, where the final will also be played. Familiarity with the championship venue is now a Toronto asset.
The NSL Final waits at TD Place on November 14
The final is a winner-take-all match for the Diana B. Matheson Cup on Saturday, November 14 at TD Place in Ottawa. Toronto’s opponent comes from the other semifinal: the Montreal Roses, the Supporters Shield winners, lead the Vancouver Rise 3-0 on aggregate heading into the second leg on Sunday, November 8 in the Montreal area.
Either opponent writes a clean storyline. Vancouver beat Toronto in last year’s inaugural final, so a Rise win sets up a direct rematch. A Montreal win sends the Shield winners against the league’s most in-form playoff attack. Under the finals rule, iimiTV publishes a full final preview before November 14 and a recap after it.
For now, the semifinal belongs to Hunter and to a Toronto side that scored eight goals across two legs. The AFC Toronto Ottawa Rapid tie was supposed to be the closer of the two semifinals. It was over by the half hour on Saturday.
