The championship picture is set after the Cavalry earned a draw in a controversial finish.
With two men sent-off the Cavalry grabbed an unlikely late-lead through Nico Pasquotti in the 81st minute only to have York9 earn the draw on a header in the sixth minute of stoppage-time on Saturday in Toronto, ending the nine-stripes slim hopes of qualifying for the Canadian Premier League championship and clinching the anticipated final match-up with the Cavs and Forge FC.
"I'm devastated for our lads, again we've had to adapt and overcome with all these different things," Cavs head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. told OneSoccer post-match. "The referee is throwing cards out like it's Christmas, he puts all our lads in the book, he's missed tons of their fouls.
"It's one-way traffic and it's embarrassing. He's then missed the foul right at the end on Nik Ledgerwood that led to their goal and he's played more than five minutes of injury time. That's disgusting at this level. I know we're all learning, but I'm devastated for my lads because they've shown great character."
Following a quiet first half, trouble started brewing in the 66th minute.
A fracas broke out after Cavs full-back Nathan Mavila was handed a yellow card for a tackle on York's Ryan Telfer. In the immediate aftermath, Cavalry's Jose Escalante was levied a red-card for violent conduct for taking a swipe at Telfer.
Just six minutes later, the Cavalry had another sent off. Mavila was handed a second yellow card for another tackle on Telfer.
Cavalry enjoyed some of its brightest moments down to just eight outfield players and opened the scoring when Pasquotti dribbled past a couple defenders and smashed it into the far corner past York's Nathan Ingham.
"People think it's easy when you play against teams that go a man down then go two-men down," said York9 head coach Jim Brennan. "Their guys end up digging in even harder."
York grabbed the single point in the last moments of stoppage time with midfielder Wataru Murofushi left alone in the box to head a shot past Cavs' goalkeeper Marco Carducci.
"Hats off to our guys, we fight tooth and nail to the end of the game and to have that taken from us because of officiating is very sad," said Ledgerwood. "That's been the fight in us all year, we have an exceptional group, no matter what's thrown at us, no matter the circumstances, but unfortunately at the end of the day you can't beat a team that has the officiating as well."
The Cavalry enter a busy stretch drive with five games in 17 days in October, including four more contests at home to close the fall season.
The run starts on Oct. 2 versus Valour FC at Spruce Meadows followed by an Oct. 5 date with the visiting HFX Wanderers.
Cavalry and Forge meet twice more in the regular season before the two-leg CPL championship.
"I think that was set about four or five weeks ago that we were facing Forge," Ledgerwood added. "We've got a couple games left in the season that we want to come out and finish out strong and then we will worry about that."
For more information go to cavalryfc.canpl.ca
