Forge FC became the first side to beat Atlético Ottawa at TD Place on Wednesday night, as a second-half goal from Woobens Pacius was the difference in a 1-0 win for the visitors.

Mista made four changes to his Atlético Ottawa side, bringing Dylan Powley, Milovan Kapor, Nyal Higgins, and Raul Uche back into the starting lineup. For Bobby Smyrniotis’ Forge FC side, the additions of Triston Henry and Dominic Samuel were the only differences to the starting group.

Forge had a lot of the ball in the early going, getting their first good scoring opportunity of the match in the 10th minute. After running onto a pass that split a pair of Ottawa defenders, David Choinière played a cross into the box that was met by the foot of Woobens Pacius a few yards away from the goal. Pacius’ effort was turned away by Dylon Powley, who made a crucial reaction save, before the ball was cleared away.

Garven Metusala also hit the target for Forge about five minutes later, but Powley denied them a goal for the second time. Brian Wright had the only shot on goal in the first half for Ottawa, but Triston Henry kept it out of the Forge goal.

The visitors had the majority of the possession at halftime as well, but were unable to score in the opening 45 minutes.

Ottawa nearly took the lead in the 57th minute on a dangerous free kick from Rafael Nunez. Striking the ball from the edge of the penalty area, Nunez’ effort had Triston Henry beat, but smashed off the top of the crossbar and out.

Continuing to knock on the door, Forge took the lead in the 65th minute. Elimane Cissé, from the halfway line, floated a long ball up the pitch that fell to the feet of Pacius. The Hammers striker took a slight touch and caught up to it, before calmly finishing the ball past Powley. There were two defenders marking Pacius, but neither was able to clear the ball away from danger and Forge benefitted from it.

Ottawa pushed for an equalizer, but it would never come.

Malcolm Shaw forced a big stop out of Triston Henry in the 90th minute, firing a free kick at the Forge goalkeeper, but Henry pushed it away. Alberto Soto picked up the rebound, before running back toward the goal and taking a shot from a tight angle, but it was blocked in front.

With the win, Forge FC extended the gap between them and fourth-placed Valour FC to six points, and The Hammers have a game in hand as well. Ottawa remain at the bottom of the table, four points back of seventh-placed FC Edmonton.

BOX SCORE

Goals

65′ — Woobens Pacius (Forge FC)

Discipline

47′ — Yellow: Milovan Kapor (Atlético Ottawa)

53′ — Yellow: Tevin Shaw (Atlético Ottawa)

55′ — Yellow: Dominic Samuel (Forge FC)

90+4′ — Yellow: Rafael Nunez (Atlético Ottawa)