Forge FC completed the comeback in Hamilton on Sunday night, defeating Pacific FC 2-1.

After Pacific’s Ayman Sellouf opened the scoring from the penalty spot, a Kwasi Poku brace gave Forge the victory. Poku now has six goals in the past five matches and is the most in-form striker in the CPL right now.

With the win, Forge move up into third place in the table, while Pacific FC drop to fifth, still just two points above Cavalry FC for the final playoff spot.

Pacific had a great chance inside the opening two minutes, as captain Josh Heard slalomed through the Forge backline and fired a floating shot which was just wide of Chris Kalongo’s left post.

The hosts dominated possession thereafter, however, and had a few chances of their own around the 13th minute, as David Choinière twice got isolated down the right and looked to find Poku in the middle — but couldn’t connect on either. In the 22nd minute then, Choinière went alone but curled his shot from the top of the box just wide of the post.

The visitors weathered the storm, however, and in the 32nd minute created a chance of their own. Sellouf played in Reon Moore down the right, who was brought down in the box by Forge’s Malik Owolabi-Belewu. Sellouf then stepped up and converted the resulting penalty from the spot, giving the visitors an unlikely 1-0 lead. It was his league-leading third penalty goal of the season.

Just before the half, Béni Badibanga forced a good save from Pacific’s Emil Gazdov on a well-struck free kick, which the goalkeeper palmed over the bar. The score remained 1-0 at the half, despite the hosts holding the vast majority of the ball.

Forge struck almost immediately to start the second half, Tristan Borges played a lovely cross into the box down the right flank, which Poku extended to redirect off the post and in to tie the match 1-1.

Poku put the ball in the back of the net again just four minutes later on a headed effort from close range, but this time he was offside.

With both sides tiring from their midweek Canadian Championship matchups, they made double substitutions around the hour mark, with Pacific switching up their midfield and bringing in Cédric Toussaint and Pierre Lamothe, and Forge adding Nana Ampomah and Noah Jensen into the mix.

Poku came incredibly close again in the 71st minute, as Jensen played a clever outside-of-the-boot cross into the box, but the Forge striker’s diving header was denied by Gazdov. The rebound fell nicely to Borges, but his low effort was easily gathered by the Pacific goalkeeper.

Looking to win it late, Forge kept pressing. They forced another good save from Gazdov in the 82nd minute off a volley from Ampomah.

Off the ensuing corner, however, Forge scored the winner. Daniel Parra poked the deflected cross into the path of Poku, who completed his brace to make it 2-1 for the hosts.

After giving up late goals in each of their past three matches in all competitions, Forge held on and were able to pick up their fifth home win of the season. That is tied with York United for most in the league.

BOX SCORE

Lineups

Forge FC: Kalongo; Metusala, Achinioti-Jönsson, Owolabi-Belewu, Parra; Hojabrpour, Bekker (Jensen 61′), Borges (Samuel 90+2′);  Badibanga (Ampomah 61′) Choinière (Duncan 88′), Poku (Hamilton 88′)

Pacific FC: Gazdov; Dada-Luke. Quintana, Meilleur-Giguère, Lajeunesse; Heard (Tircoveanu 64′), Young, Dominguez (Toussaint 55′) Yeates (Lamothe 55′); Sellouf, Moore (Reid 64′)

Goals

33′ — Ayman Sellouf (Pacific FC) (Penalty)
47′ — Kwasi Poku (Forge FC)
85′ — Kwasi Poku (Forge FC)

Discipline

43′ — Yellow: Sean Young (Pacific FC)
45′ — Yellow: Malik Owolabi-Belewu (Forge FC)