History belongs to the Cavalry.
Needing either a win or some help on the out of town scoreboard Cavalry FC took care of business Wednesday night with a 2-0 road victory over York9 FC to clinch the inaugural Canadian Premier League spring season title.
"It's a checkpoint," said Cavalry head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. post-game. "We wanted to do it because it's the first ever, now we're the first ever. Now it's a case of we're not letting off the gas, we want to go again for the fall because you get to host the final and get to have the choice of whether you host.
"We're going to go again. There's things we're doing very well that have got us to this point and there's things I think we can do better."
The three-points improved the Cavalry's record to 8-1-0 in the 10-game spring season. The CPL format has the winner of the spring season and 18-game fall seaon square off in a two-leg championship in October.
Cavalry FC established itself early in the inaugural season winning its first seven matches. Through nine games the team has five clean sheets while outscoring opposition by a 15-4 margin.
"It feels great obviously," said Cavs goalkeeper Marco Carducci post-game. "We had a good start to get things going and we knew if we kept that up we had a good chance to get here.
"We're obviously proud of ourselves, we're going to enjoy the moment and relish it. But at the same time, it's just one step in the final and that's what we want to do. We want to win the whole thing."
Striker Dominique Malonga and central midfielder Julian Buscher scored first-half goals in the 2-0 result at York Lions Stadium in Toronto, the latter with a bit of trickery on a three-way passing play on a free-kick.
"They took their goal well, it was a great finish on the first one," said York9 head coach Jimmy Brennan. "The second one there was a foul that should have went our way, they go down the other way and score on us. I wasn't happy with the first-half, a few things that happened in that game. I hope they're learning from it, we had some chances in the second-half, but we're dissapointed we conceded those two goals.
"Fair play to Tommy's team, he's done well with them so far."
Wheeldon Jr. credited the resolve and the versatility of his squad that have been key features during the spring run.
"We've got different ways of winning football matches," Wheeldon Jr. said. "I thought we were very good in terms of our possession and attack play first half and second half we had to close up shop and defend. And they did that for each other and they're adaptable."
Carducci said he knew day one of the pre-season what a special group the Cavalry had the potential to become.
"We had a core group of guys who came in, we had coaching staff who made it very clear what they wanted from us," he said. "From the very beginning through all of preseason to the start of the season, we gelled, we showed our character in a lot of the wins and a lot of the performances."
The Cavs close out the spring season on Canada Day on Vancouver Island with a battle versus Pacific FC.
All seven CPL teams get a clean slate when the 18-game fall season launches next week. The Cavs open the fall campaign on July 6 right back at Pacific's Westhills Stadium.
The third-round of the Canadian Championship is on the horizon with Spruce Meadows' ATCO Field playing host to the first leg of the Vancouver Whitecaps clash with the Cavalry on July 10.
"We're obviously happy we've done the job," Carducci said. "But it just continues, we want to keep going, we want to win the fall as well, it's as simple as that."
For more information go to cavalryfc.canpl.ca
