RECAP + HIGHLIGHTS: York United vs. Pacific FC | August 24, 2025

Shaan Hundal dazzled in his first start for York United FC on Sunday afternoon in Toronto, as he scored four goals for the Nine Stripes en route to an emphatic 5-1 victory over Pacific FC.

York came into the match with an aggressive plan, pressing the Tridents and trying to overwhelm them with numbers forward. They forced Sean Melvin into an early save, and spent considerable time high up the pitch.

It didn't take long for the strategy to pay off. When the game was barely 10 minutes old, Adonijah Reid played a ball through the middle toward Pacific defender Sean Young, whose touch left it directly in the path of Massimo Ferrin. The York winger slipped it quickly through to Shaan Hundal, who scored his first goal for the club with an excellent finish low and to his right.

Just a few minutes later, the Nine Stripes doubled their lead, again thanks to some quick movement and a good phase of pressure. Ferrin forced a turnover off a sloppy pass out of the back, Orlando Botello squared it to Reid, and Reid played through to Leonel López in the box. The Mexican midfielder needed a few deft touches in the area to evade three encroaching defenders, and he fired into the net to make it 2-0.

To make matters worse for Pacific, Young — one of their back three — picked up an injury on the play resulting in that second goal, which meant coach James Merriman had to use an early substitution and put Roshan Juhmi into the match early.

The Tridents did show some life later in the opening half; just before the break, Aly Ndom fired a long ball from just inside his own half into the final third, where it skipped off a York player and landed kindly for Alejandro Díaz. The Pacific striker did what he does best and finished the chance well, cutting the deficit in half just seconds before halftime.

The second half saw Pacific offer a few chances in transition, particularly after the introduction of Marco Bustos and Yann Toualy, but the home side wouldn't budge and with around 15 minutes to go they emphatically killed off the game.

Between the 73rd and 83rd minutes, Hundal would score not one, not two, but three more times, making him just the second player in CPL history to score four in a match (after Sam Salter did so earlier this season). He scored a pair of well-taken finishes inisde the box, then added another into an empty net after he and Shola Jimoh got in behind Pacific's defence completely alone.

The Brampton native would thus lead York to a resounding victory at home, which now puts them just one point behind Cavalry FC for third in the league, while all but dooming Pacific's playoff hopes as they now sit 10 points behind fifth place.

BOX SCORE

Lineups

York United: Urtiaga; Sturing, Adekugbe (Higgins 79'), León; Ferrari, L. López (Kibato 65'), Yeates (Costa 79'), Botello; Reid (Jimoh 69'), Hundal, Ferrin (Bitar 79')

Pacific FC: Melvin; Ndom, Young (Juhmi 19'), Baldisimo; Chung, Browning-Lagerfeldt, Daniels (Montejano 85'), Greco-Taylor; Heard (Bustos 58'), Díaz (Keshavarz 85'), Zanatta (Toualy 58')

Goals

11' — Shaan Hundal (York United)
17' — Leonel López (York United)
45+1' — Alejandro Díaz (Pacific FC)
73' — Shaan Hundal (York United)
81' — Shaan Hundal (York United)
84' — Shaan Hundal (York United)

Discipline

49' — Yellow: Dario Zanatta (Pacific FC)
53' — Yellow: Adonijah Reid (York United)
87' — Yellow: Matthew Baldisimo (Pacific FC)