Sarah Stratigakis and Nikayla Small scored for Toronto as they rounded out the season on a seven-game unbeaten streak
Toronto, ON (October 19, 2025) – AFC Toronto completed their regular season campaign with a 2-1 win over Montréal Roses at York Lions Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Toronto ends the regular season on a seven-game unbeaten streak, earning the Northern Super League’s inaugural Supporters’ Shield with 51 points and a 16-3-6 record. The two teams will face off again in the first leg of the NSL semifinals.
Montréal opened the scoring 10 minutes into the match off a counterattack. Approaching half time, a charging Lauren Rowe crossed the ball in for Sarah Stratigakis who found the tying goal for Toronto. Stratigakis finishes the season with two goals and two assists.
Late in the game, Nikayla Small scored the go-ahead goal for Toronto with a strike in the box off a clean feed from Esther Okoronkwo. Okoronkwo earned her seventh assist of the year on the goal, finishing the season as the NSL leader in assists. The goal also marked Small’s fifth of the year, landing her tied for tenth in the league’s goalscoring race.
“We were getting a lot of opportunities, so it was nice that we were able to finish off the chances that we had,” said Stratigakis, on her and Small’s goals. “Lauren gave me a really nice ball and I was able to finish that.”
Head Coach Marko Milanović on the support from AFC Toronto’s fanbase through the year: “They've been our 12th player all season long. We love being here. It really feels like home. This is where we train daily and spend so much time. We didn't have a great home record to begin the season and it was always in the back of our minds because we knew that these people deserved more. And it's always so nice to see, first of all, so many kids that are still around over half an hour after the final whistle, probably an hour now at this point. And they're still here. And for them, these girls are just amazing role models and they can see themselves hopefully playing in the stadium and playing pro soccer, which is what it's all about.”
AFC Toronto will now gear up to face Montréal Roses FC for the first leg of the NSL semifinals, set to take place at Stade Boréale on Saturday, Nov. 1 at 12 pm ET.
IRON WOMAN: Toronto captain Emma Regan finishes the year as the league’s sole Iron Woman, playing in all 2250 minutes of the season.
HELPING HAND: Esther Okoronkwo finishes the year as the league-leader in assists, with a total of seven through 20 appearances.
GOLDEN BOOT: With 14 goals through 22 appearances, 17-year-old Kaylee Hunter finishes second in the league’s inaugural Golden Boot race.
SEASON SERIES: AFC Toronto takes the season series over Montréal Roses FC, finishing with three wins and two losses in facing off against the group from Quebec.
UP NEXT: AFC Toronto faces Montréal Roses FC at Stade Boréale on Saturday, Nov. 1 at 12 pm ET for Leg 1 of the NSL Semifinals. (Stream on CBC Gem and NSL.ca; French language coverage on RDS).
MATCH SUMMARY
AFC Toronto - 2 Montréal Roses FC - 1
Venue: York Lions Stadium
Referee: Myriam Marcotte
Assistants: Camille Raymond, Amanda Kwan
Fourth Official: Angelina Baldino
Referee Observer: Alexis Vaughn
Attendance: 3,181
SCORING SUMMARY
AFC Toronto: Sarah Stratigakis (43’), Nikayla Small (87’)
Montréal Roses FC: Allie Hess (11’)
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
82’ - Yellow: Cloey Uddenberg (AFC Toronto)
90+6’ - Yellow: Esther Okoronkwo (AFC Toronto)
STARTING LINEUP & STATS
AFC Toronto Starting Lineup:
GK Sierra Cota-Yarde (Toronto, ON)
DF Ashley Cathro (Victoria, BC), DF Sarah Rollins (Toronto, ON), DF Croix Soto (USA)
MF Nyota Katembo (Montreal, QC), MF April Lantaigne (Ajax, ON), MF Emma Regan (Burnaby, BC). MF Nikayla Small (Pickering, ON), MF Sarah Stratigakis (Toronto, ON)
FW Lauren Rowe (Conception Bay South, NL), FW Esther Okoronkwo (Nigeria)
Substitutes: Danielle Krzyzaniak (GK), Zoe Burns (DF), Kaela Hansen (DF), Hong Hye-Ji (DF),
Cloey Uddenberg (MF), Colby Barnett (MF), Aoi Kizaki (MF), Kaylee Hunter (FW), Jade
Kovacevic (FW)
Total Shots: 22
Shots on Goal: 10
Fouls: 13
Offsides: 4
Corner-Kicks: 8
Saves: 4
Video Highlights of Game
Media can access video highlights from the match on the Northern Super League YouTube
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernSuperLeague
Match Summary
A complete summary of the match facts and stats can be viewed at:
https://www.nsl.ca/games/toronto-montreal-2025-10-18
More from the locker room:
Marko Milanovic on the key contributions from across the roster: “From day one we always talked about our environment being the absolute key thing for our success, our training environment has been incredible all year. As a result of that, even the players that haven’t had that many minutes or that haven’t featured as much as some of the other ones were ready to go when they were called upon. It wasn’t just today, it was multiple games where players stepped in and played well, and today was no different.”
Sarah Stratigakis on choosing DRIVEN as her word of empowerment for AFC’s partnership with Dove for the #ChangeTheCompliment initiative: “I just think it speaks to the team culture and myself as well. Just putting in the work every day and showing up. I really like the environment, very competitive and somewhere that I wanna be.”
Nikayla Small on choosing TALENTED: “Talented, because everyone's talented in their own way. I think just knowing that in the back of your mind, you can achieve anything you want.”
Milanovic on taking home the Supporters’ Shield: “We feel amazing. It's a really rewarding feeling. Winning the league was our main goal from day one, we made that very clear. Now we very much look forward to winning in the playoffs. So the feeling is absolutely fantastic and we're gonna enjoy it today, and then we’re right back to work."