Cavalry FC continued their charge up the standings on Saturday afternoon, climbing into third place with a 3-2 win over Halifax Wanderers FC at ATCO Field.
An important block from Cale Loughrey, in his return from an illness that kept him out of Halifax’s last match, denied a powerful shot from Fraser Aird in the ninth minute, but led to an early corner kick for the hosts. Cavalry took the lead from the ensuing set piece, with Ali Musse curling a cross onto the head of Daan Klomp, which was redirected into the back of the net to give the hosts an early advantage.
They didn’t have the lead for long, however, as the Wanderers struck back just two minutes later.
A deep cross from a wide free kick found the head of Dan Nimick, who headed the ball back across the penalty area. Tiago Coimbra was in the right place at the right time to catch the Cavs defenders ball-watching, and got a second header on it, redirecting Nimick’s ball past Marco Carducci to tie things up at 1-1.
A wild back-and-forth start to the match continued in the 21st minute, as the Cavs got a bit of help to restore their lead.
Nicolas Wähling got onto the end of a floating cross from Fraser Aird, but his attempted shot was not of the quality he was hoping for, sending it laterally across the box. The ball deflected off Loughrey, bouncing into the bottom right corner of the net to put the Cavs up by one.
The Cavs had two great scoring chances a few minutes later to extend their lead, both from outside the box. Maël Henry’s initial effort crashed back out off the woodwork, before Diego Gutiérrez followed up with a powerful second shot that forced an excellent save from Yann Fillion.
The Wanderers goalkeeper made another big stop in the 39th minute, lunging to his left to push a header from Tom Field around the post. This time the corner would be inconsequential, with the play ending on a Bradley Kamdem shot that went high over the crossbar.
It was an end-to-end, high-paced first half at ATCO Field, with Cavalry outshooting Halifax 11-6, 4-3 in terms of shots on target — and taking the lead going into the locker room.
Sean Rea nearly scored his first for the Wanderers eight minutes after halftime, taking a shot from inside the area that took a deflection before bouncing inches wide of the post. Moments later Cale Loughrey made up for his earlier own goal with a crucial block, getting back and making a big challenge on Wähling as the Cavs forward looked to put the ball into the empty net with Fillion way outside of his box.
Cavalry extended their lead in the 66th minute, and for the second time in this match it was Daan Klomp powering the ball into the back of the net with a header. This time the ball reached him from an inch-perfect cross from Aird.
Halifax pulled themselves back within one four minutes later, from the penalty spot. Klomp was penalized for a tackle in his own box, giving his fellow Da(a)n — Wanderers defender Dan Nimick — a chance to score from 12 yards out. Nimick rarely misses those opportunities when they are presented to him, and beat Marco Carducci with a great shot to make it 3-2.
The Cavs screamed for a penalty at the other end of the pitch in the final moments of the second half after they thought they saw the ball strike the arm of a Wanderers defender, but referee Mario Al-Ayass waved away the protests.
After the fourth official’s board flashed six minutes of stoppage time to end the match, Cavalry’s focus turned to protecting their lead rather than extending it, running the ball toward the corners of the pitch as the Wanderers desperately tried to win it back to push for a late equalizer.
With Fillion in the Cavalry box in an attempt to score from a late corner, Loughrey got his head on a corner kick into the area, but his effort on goal was easily caught by Marco Carducci. As the Cavs goalkeeper fell to the ground with ball in arms, the referee blew the whistle to end the match, and confirm three big points for the hosts.
They now sit third in the table, leaping over Forge FC and now just one point back of York United. They are also two points back of first-place Atlético Ottawa — but all three of those teams are set to play later in the weekend, including Ottawa visiting Forge later on Saturday night.
