Defending Canadian Premier League champions Cavalry FC, featuring Saint Lucian striker Caniggia Elva, are into the Contenders’ Semifinal on November 2, after beating York in the quarterfinal on a blustery weekend at Spruce Meadows’ ATCO Field. Tobias Warschewski scored a brace as the Cavs overpowered York United 4-1. Their reward is a date with Forge FC, the CPL Shield winners as regular season champions, away at Hamilton Stadium. The winner books a ticket to the championship final on November 9, against Atlético Ottawa.
“I feel like we’ve been working toward it the whole season,” said Elva after the match. “It’s playoff time, and that’s where we come alive. We secured third place to play in front of our fans in the first game, and we did that. Our goal was to score the first, and we’ll just keep coming.
“I still feel like people thought we were the underdogs coming into the playoffs,” Elva added. “But people forget we were the champions last year. And now it’s the playoffs, and we’re here to show it.”
In their bid to stay alive in CPL’s Rise to the North, the quest to lift the coveted North Star Cup as CPL Champions, the Cavs recorded 17 shot attempts and had six corners in the comprehensive triumph. Twenty-nine-year-old Elva has netted four times this season.
“I thought they executed the gameplan tremendously well from the first minute to the last,” said Cavalry head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. “I thought they were brilliant, every man that came on, whether they started or finished, even the way they trained this week, the guys that weren’t in the squad were terrific. I’m humbled by the way they went out and put on a show.”
The eventual CPL champions will also earn a berth in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup, the premier club competition in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
