2025 Season Review: New highs and new lows
Another Guelph United season ended last week, and it’s time to look back at how we did in 2025. It’s been an up and down year, full of great moments but also disappointment. We’ve reached new highs with our women’s team, who finished in 4th place of L1O’s Premier Division - our highest ranking ever, but also reached new lows with the men, who ended in a disappointing 11th place in L1O’s Championship Division, very far from our goal of promotion to the Premier Division.
GUFC Women approached the 2025 season with a clear goal of improving on a solid 2024, in which they finished in 5th place.
And they did just that. Despite a slower start to the season, alternating wins and losses, Guelph United, led for the second year by head coach Randy Ribeiro, gained speed throughout the season. With an Olivia Brown in incredible form, Guelph United started stringing wins together, and ended the season on a 5-match win streak, for a 4th place finish.
And even though it was Olivia Brown who stood out the most, by scoring 20 goals (good for 2nd best in the league) - including 3 hat-tricks, the excellent second half of the season was a team effort, from great goalkeeping, to solid defense, to a midfield and attack that played fast-paced, exciting football. Take Zoë Rowe, for example: our first-year forward bagged her own 10 goals, and only Brown’s record-breaking year made this accomplishment go somewhat under the radar. Or Kate Knafelc - our only player, other than Brown, to have played in every single one of the 20 matches this year. Or Hunter Jones, our goalkeeper, who registered 4 clean sheets in 14 appearances (and also one assist).
“The women’s team was excellent, they were a joy to watch. They got stronger and stronger every game, ended the season on a 5-game win streak, broke more records, and finished one spot higher than they ever did. Now we have to finish one spot higher next year, or maybe two more, and let’s see where we can take that, because we have a lot of great players in our women’s program, and that gives us plenty of hope and something to build on”, says Keith Mason, Guelph United’s GM, and men’s head coach.
GUFC Women - 2025 season stats
Top goalscorers: Olivia Brown (20 goals), Zoë Rowe (10 goals), Violet Hipkin, Olivia Rizakos (2 goals).
Most appearances: Olivia Brown, Kate Knafelc (20 games), Haley Ward, Zoë Rowe, Olivia Rizakos (19 games).
Clean sheets: Hunter Jones (4), Yazmeen Jamieson (1)
For full list of results, click here. For final standings, click here. For roster list and player stats, click here.
After the disappointment of relegation from the L1O Premier Division in 2024, GUFC Men hoped their stay in the second-tier Championship Division would be short. With the news that the top 2 or 3 teams would promote in 2025, and with many core members of the GUFC roster returning, it looked like our team would be one of the promotion favorites.
However, it wasn’t meant to be. A decent start to the season, during a tough stretch of matches - most of them away from home - gave us hope. 4 wins and only 1 loss in the first 8 games was promising. But as the season advanced, our play did not, and the poor results started piling up.
Eventually, in the second half of the season, GUFC found itself further and further away from the top 3 spots. And, if the women’s team ended the year with a 5-match win streak, the men wrapped up 2025 with a 5-match losing streak, and a finish in 11th place (out of 12 teams) - luckily, in a season with no relegation to third-tier League2 Ontario. The offensive struggles can be seen in the top goalscorers chart, where our team was led by midfielder Jack Sears, with 6 goals. On the plus side, a few reserve players stepped up and became integral parts of our senior team, led by Daniel Alexa and Cameron Clack.
“I’m extremely disappointed. We were nowhere near the levels we wanted or expected. We have to rebuild from the bottom to the top in terms of the men’s program. It just hasn’t been good enough. We need to learn from how the season went, take in all the things we have observed, and start again. Having said that, we have had a lot of young players, some 17 year olds, 18, 19, so we feel there’s plenty of talent within the club, we just need to start again“, says GUFC Men head coach Keith Mason.
GUFC Men - 2025 season stats
Top goalscorers: Jack Sears (6 goals), Aiden Borges, Gray Yates (5 goals), Anthony Ostrun (4 goals).
Most appearances: Daniel Alexa, Amardo Oakley (20 games), Cameron Clack, Anthony Ostrun, Jack Sears, Gray Yates (19 games).
Clean sheets: Jack Harrington (3), Jake Findlay (1)
For full list of results, click here. For final standings, click here. For roster list and player stats, click here.
Through the ups and downs, the highs and lows, there is one thing that remained constant: the steadfast support of our fans.
“I just want to thank all the fans for their amazing support again this year. It’s fortunate we have such a great fanbase. We’re proud of our women’s program, we’re excited about what they can do next year, and we’ll just refocus on the men’s side, to see if we can give them a team that makes them proud”, says Keith Mason.
We’ll now begin our off-season determined to make the necessary adjustments to give you two winning teams in 2026, that you can be proud of.
Meanwhile, stay tuned to our website and social media in the coming weeks and months, for all the news and info as we prepare for the new season.