Thousands of fans made their way to Westhills Stadium again Saturday to watch Pacific FC kick off the fall season against Calgary’s Cavalry FC.
While the Island team was looking for another win against the spring season champions, they fell short with a 2-3 loss against Cavalry FC.
The first half saw two goals from Calgary’s Sergio Camargo and Nico Pasquotti, allowing the team to lead 2-0. Pacific FC saw three shots — zero on target — and three saves while Cavalry FC saw eight shots — five on target — and zero saves.
Camargo scored in the 21st minute of the game followed by Pasquotti’s goal a few minutes later with a header.
Pacific FC picked up momentum in the second half with captain Ben Fisk scoring. However, cheering fans in the stadium quickly deflated as Calgary’s Camargo scored again just two minutes later.
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In the 83rd minute, Pacific FC’s Terran Campbell brought spirits back up with another goal for the Island team but they were unable to score a third goal before game’s end.
Some of Pacific FC’s key players took multiple injuries in the spring season, causing the team’s young, U-21 players to step up.
Pacific FC head coach Michael Silberbauer said the team is still developing and that they’re doing a good job and learning.
“We should keep it ambitious but we’re doing that with the performance we’re asking of them in every single game,” Silberbauer said.
He noted the team built up momentum a couple times during the game but were just “one goal too late” in the end.
“Today we were up against that good of a team that we can see there are still some things to learn,” Silberbauer said. “We also saw that we could also compete against the best.”
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Pacific FC captain Ben Fisk called it a game of two halves giving the team credit for pulling together in the second half and scoring two goals.
“We showed what we’re capable of but we threw it away with that first half performance,” Fisk said. “Countless times we had a good attack going and we inevitably lost the ball… we weren’t quick enough to pressure after that and we got hit on the counter-attack.”
Cavalry FC will continue its Canadian Championship campaign on Wednesday with a game against the Vancouver Whitecaps for leg one of the qualifying round.
Pacific FC’s next match will be at home against Hamilton’s Forge FC on July 13 at 3 p.m.
shalu.mehta@goldstreamgazette.com