After ending the first round of The Island Games on a high, Pacific FC is off to a disappointing start to the second round in Charlottetown.
The Tridents left UPEI’s campus wanting much more after suffering a 3-1 loss to Cavalry FC on Wednesday night.
Cavalry broke the game open in the 15th minute via a trip to the spot. Abdoulaye Samake’s lunging tackle was a clear-cut penalty decision from referee David Barrie, and Cavalry’s Nik Ledgerwood duly converted it to put Pacific in a hole early on.
It was the fifth penalty conceded by Pacific at The Island Games, the most of any CPL team.
“Again, we gave up another penalty and put us at the bottom of an uphill battle,” Pacific midfielder Jamar Dixon said. “We had chances to go forward, we’d get a half-chance and that’s all you can ask for. We have to stop giving away these PKs, they’re too much.”
Coach Pa-Modou Kah agreed.
“In the box, you don’t tackle. He’s going out wide, you don’t need to tackle him,” Kah said.
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An injury to Samake later on forced defensive midfielder Matthew Baldisimo into the backline, as Pacific was without defenders Lukas MacNaughton and Marcel de Jong due to injury.
Elijah Adekugbe doubled the Cavs’ lead after 49 minutes after blowing through a flatfooted PFC backline, and Mo Farsi netted a third for the Calgary side via a beautiful strike.
“They didn’t allow us to play and they wanted to stop us at the source, which they did fantastically,” Kah said. “And they took the chances we made for them, and that’s part of football.
“You have to give credit to the opposition. They wanted their revenge, they did their research and took advantage of us. They were hungry and fought hard. We have two games to get points.”
PFC beat Cavalry 2-0 in the first round, a result that seems like a distant memory, even if it came less than two weeks ago.
A bright spot on Wednesday came from a previously-considered depth option in Sean Young. The 19-year-old Victoria native operated as a box-to-box midfielder, and impressed Dixon.
“Sean is a guy I talk with a lot and I have so much respect for this young man. He listens, works his butt off, and he’s humble,” Dixon said PFC.
Pacific can’t afford to slip up when they return to the pitch Saturday to face Forge FC (12pm ET/1pm AT, OneSoccer/CBC). They’ll need points there and against HFX Wanderers FC next Tuesday to have a shot at advancing to the 2020 CPL finals.
