Gattas Bags Hat Trick In CPL’s Highest-Scoring Game

When 3,000+ fans arrived at York Lions Stadium this Saturday afternoon, few would have expected to be in for an eight-goal thriller.

It didn’t take the Nine Stripes long to get things going, with Toronto FC loanee Ryan Telfer taking possession of the ball after some sloppy defensive play and nutmegging Jan-Michael Williams in the eleventh minute. For the Trinidadian goalkeeper, the day was about to get a lot worse: eleven minutes later, Chilean forward Rodrigo Gattas chested down a headed ball from Kyle Porter, firing home a shot into the back right corner behind just out of Williams’ reach.

Gattas would add to his tally in fine fashion a mere ten minutes later, striking a beautiful left-footed shot from outside of the box that curled just inside the net. Of the three goals he was to score on the day, the 27-year-old stated that this was his favourite. He would complete his hat trick – the league’s first-ever – just before the end of the first half, heading home a cross from captain Manny Aparicio.

Here’s a look at all three goals from Rodrigo Gattas:

The pace of the game toned down in the second half, and the Wanderers clawed one back when Ontario-born striker Tomasz Skublak intercepted a poor back pass from Nine Stripes full-back Morey Doner to prevent Ingham from collecting a clean sheet. Three minutes later, the other end of the pitch would see Ryan Telfer put a second passed Williams courtesy of a near-side shot.

The madness wasn’t over yet, with an own goal from Roger Thompson putting the Wanderers back to three goals behind. The record four-goal margin would be restored by substitute Emilio Estevez, who got multiple rebounds and pushed his third into the back of the net, allowing York9 FC to see out an unprecedented 6-2 victory over the Halifax Wanderers.

The match left Rodrigo in a confident mood after he collected the match ball, and he told reporters after the game that this was the beginning of many more goals to come. Gattas led the league in shots prior to kickoff with 31.

The four-goal lead held by York9 FC is the largest margin of victory seen in the league so far, with Forge’s 3-0 win over Pacific and FC Edmonton’s 0 – 3 Al Classico loss to Calvary FC providing the previous biggest margins. Eddies goalkeeper Connor James had previously stated the league has a lot of parity, and the lack of any true blowout results prior to today indicates that he’s probably right right.

York9 FC now has nine points after five games played. It took the club nearly double the amount of games in the spring season to reach the same amount of points. If Gattas can build off of his hat-trick, the Nine Stripes will be hoping it can add many more points to its tally when it resumes action this August.