Nolan Wirth made the most of his first league start between the pipes for Pacific FC, which beat the Canadian Premier League-leading Cavalry FC of Calgary, 3-1 Monday at Westhills Stadium in Victoria.
The 24-year-old goalkeeper from Comox saved seven of eight shots during the back-and-forth match, including a goal-line stop in the dying minutes.
“I just jumped on it,” Wirth said. “It was a shot from the angle, parried it, and then it was a 50/50 challenge for the second ball. It was rolling and I went in 50/50 with the guy, and I bear-clawed it, and held it on the goal line.”
Wirth is among three key players named in a CPL game review. He described the Canada Day victory as a “sweet-sour” win.
“It’s been a long time coming, so that was the sour part,” he said. “And then finally it got sweet. It was a stressful game, no doubt about that. It was our togetherness, we stuck in there for the whole 96 minutes…Throughout the year, keepers have been playing well against us, or we’ve been hitting the posts, but it’s starting to flow now, the goals.”
The win bumps Pacific FC’s record to 3-5-2. The team is tied at 11 points with Halifax and York. Cavalry leads the standings with 24 points, followed by Forge FC of Hamilton with 19 and Edmonton with 14.
“Anybody can win on any given day,” said Wirth, the lone Vancouver Islander playing in the newly-formed CPL.
“A true Islander,” he says.
Wirth has been backing up Mark Village in goal. His only other start was a Canadian Championship game, which was a loss against Calgary.
Monday’s game wraps up the spring portion of the inaugural CPL season. Pacific and Cavalry square off again Saturday, July 6 in Victoria to kick off the fall portion. There are 18 games remaining in the season.