Holy Cross FC win their 23rd Newfoundland Labrador men’s provincial championship

Holy Cross FC won their 23rd Newfoundland Labrador men’s provincial championship on Sunday following a 1:0 victory over Feildians AA. Holy Cross FC forward Steven DeLong scored the lone goal in the 56th minute while goalkeeper Thomas Pieroway and the backline posted the clean sheet. With the provincial win, the former national champions Holy Cross FC qualified for Canada Soccer’s 2022 Toyota National Championships in Vaughan, Ontario.

In the Sunday final, coach Jake Stanford featured Thomas Pieroway in goal, Sean Henderson at right back, Zachary Visser and Alex Pretty at centre back, Michael O’Brien at left back, Hashem Khalifa, Jake Warren and Cabhan O’Keefe at midfield, and Tyler Kirby, Kyle Williams and Brent Hennebury up front. Colin Connors, Steven DeLong, Alex Dolomount and Andrew Stanford featured as substitutes while Kirk Edwards, Struan Maclean, Cesar Figueroa, Ethan Slaney and Bashar Heddo dressed but did not feature. O’Brien won the Gerard Quirke Memorial Award as the Most Valuable Player of the playoffs.

It was the fourth year in a row that the two St. John’s teams met in the Newfoundland Labrador final, with Feildians AA the 2:1 winners in 2021 and Holy Cross FC the 2:1 winners in 2020. Holy Cross FC won the 2019 final 4-2 on kicks from the penalty mark after a scoreless draw. Holy Cross FC have now won 11 of the past 14 men’s provincial titles since 2009. They rank second all-time with 23 men’s provincial titles behind only 29-time winners St. Lawrence Laurentians.

This will also mark the 21st time that Holy Cross FC advance to Canada Soccer’s National Championships since 1973. They were national winners in 1988 and runners up in 1989. They most recently finished fourth overall in 2018 and seventh overall in 2019, with both the 2020 and 2021 national finals canceled on account of the global pandemic.

For the organisation, Holy Cross FC won both the men’s and women’s titles in 2022 with Noel Jake Stanford as the Head Coach. Before the men’s title on Sunday 4 September, Holy Cross FC won the 2022 women’s title on Sunday 28 August with a 1:0 victory over Feildians AA. Both provincial championships were played at King George V Park in St. John’s.