Vancouver FC made it three in a row and claimed a second straight Salish Sea Derby win on Saturday Sept. 30, as they defeated rivals Pacific FC 2-1 at Starlight Stadium.

Vancouver opened the scoring in the 28th minute through Gabriel Bitar, before adding a second in the 35th minute after Bitar found Vasco Fry for the midfielder鈥檚 first goal with the club.

In the second half, Pacific鈥檚 Easton Ongaro nodded home a set-piece goal in the 53rd minute, but they then came up short in their late bid to at least earn a point, as Vancouver鈥檚 Callum Irving made several key stops against his former team, and was awarded Gatorade performance of the match.

The Moment of the Match is this huge stop from 's Callum Irving to keep his team in front 馃�� I 馃摵

鈥� Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer)

鈥淲hen you see our first half performance, how tactically sound we played, as well as how we created the openings, it was (great),鈥� Vancouver鈥檚 head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, noted. 鈥淲e kept the ball well, took our two goals well, and even in the second half, when were under a lot of pressure, we managed that pressure quite well.鈥�

The fact Vancouver is out of the playoffs had been a positive in some ways, Irving noted.

鈥淭oday was always going to be a chance for us to show how far we鈥檝e come from the first game to now,鈥� Irving commented. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had a chance now, with no playoffs on the horizon, to show what we鈥檙e about, and what we鈥檝e been working on for next year.鈥�

鈥淎nd we haven鈥檛 wavered (in our belief), we haven鈥檛 given up despite the fact that we easily could have, guys could have just started getting on each other, people could have just said that they don鈥檛 want to be here.鈥�

鈥淵et, every day in training, guys are trying, and through that, we鈥檝e now been able to show up on the second last day of the season, when we鈥檙e been mathematically out of the playoffs for a while, and put on a performance like this, and that just shows the character of the players and of our club as a whole, showing what we鈥檙e trying to build, and I couldn鈥檛 be prouder of the guys for that.鈥�

Charge it to the game @pacificfootballclub

鈥� Vancouver Football Club (@vanfootballclub)

Despite their loss, Pacific still remain in a good position, guaranteed to finish no lower than fourth, and can still finish in the top two and potentially host a final.

Vancouver FC will finish off their season at home, as they host York United at 91原创鈥檚 Willoughby Community Park on Friday, Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m.

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