HIGHLIGHTS: Pacific FC vs. HFX Wanderers FC (April 23, 2022)

Pacific FC continued a strong start to their 2022 CPL campaign on Saturday, picking up their third win in as many games with a 2-1 result over HFX Wanderers at Starlight Stadium, grabbing all three points thanks to a late Alejandro Diaz penalty.

After a quiet start to the game from both sides, Pacific would find a way to open the scoring in the 24th minute. Having found their way into the final third after some nice interplay down the left side, Manny Aparicio played a nice give-and-go with Alejandro Diaz, who’d find Aparicio with a nice floated cross, one that Aparicio would head home with conviction for his second goal of the season.

Then, at the other end, Halifax would manage to find an equalizer right before the stroke half time. Having done well to win a free kick in a dangerous area, Cory Bent stepped up to take it, and he’d unleash a rocket, one that would curl into the corner to tie things up at 1-1.

Other than that, however, there wouldn’t be much to write home about in the first half, at least other than the goals, as not much else would materialize in terms of attacking chances, making for an overall quiet half.

Despite that quiet half, things would start to get livelier in the second half, as both teams chased a victory. As a result, they’d both trade chances around the 50th minute, as Sam Salter nearly broke through with a nice chance in the 51st minute, before Alejandro Diaz sent a dangerous shot from inside the box just over the goal in the 59th minute.

After that, though, things would quiet down for a bit. And sensing that, Marco Bustos would nearly score a goal to remember in the 79th minute, as he attempted to flick the ball up to himself before attempting a bicycle kick from inside of the box, but he’d just fail to connect with his audacious his shot attempt.

Building off that, that’d allow Pacific to finally find their breakthrough in the 84th minute. After some nice trickery down the right flank from Bustos, he’d manage to snake inside the box and win a penalty, which Diaz would step up to take, making no mistake with a calm finish from the spot.

From there, with their lead in hand, they’d make no mistakes the rest of the way in holding onto it, allowing them to continue their perfect start to the campaign.

BOX SCORE

Goals

24′ — Manny Aparicio  (Pacific FC)

45′ — Cory Bent  (HFX Wanderers)

84′ — Alejandro Diaz  (Pacific FC)

Discipline

55′ — Yellow: Manny Aparicio (Pacific FC)

57′ — Yellow: Obeng Tabi (HFX Wanderers)

70′ — Yellow: Abdou Samake (Pacific FC)

90′ — Yellow: Djenairo Daniels (Pacific FC)