A A

The scoreboard read 1-0 for Vaughan Azzurri but it’s the HFX Wanderers FC who advances in their Canadian Championship showdown.

The League1 Ontario champions won the second leg of the home-and-away matchup 1-0 at a cold and blustery Wanderers Grounds on Wednesday. The teams finished 3-3 on aggregate. But the Wanderers move on to the next stage based on the three away goals they scored last Wednesday in Vaughan, Ont.

“Sometimes with these cup tournaments, you have to grind through and get the result that you hope gets you through,” Wanderers keeper Christian Oxner of Halifax said following the match. “At the end of the day, we are through, we’re happy but we have a lot to improve on.”

The Wanderers advance to the next round against Valour FC. The first leg will be held in Halifax on June 5 before it switches to Winnipeg the following week.

The teams have faced each other in Canadian Premier League play. Valour pulled out a 1-0 home victory on May 11 at Investors Group Field.

“We went up there and played a good game but were unlucky with the result,” Oxner said. “I would imagine we will come through and be hungry to play them again. We’ll show them what we are really about.”

The only goal of the match came in the 27th minute. Ryan Raposo’s cross deflected off Wanderers defender Peter Schaale and slipped pass Oxner’s outstretched hand.

Scoring chances were scarce for either side. Vaughan only managed one shot on goal in the second half. Sameer Fathazada found an opening and his high strike was turned aside by the fingertips of Oxner in the 67th minute to keep the Wanderers close.

The windy conditions weren’t conducive to high adrenalin football. But it’s not like the Wanderers aren’t used to it. Team practices are held at the windswept Soccer Nova Scotia facility in Clayton Park.

“Practising up at Soccer Nova Scotia, we’re used to all of this wind,” Oxner said. “It wasn’t too bad. As coach said, ‘they have to play in it too.’ We adapted to it and we did OK at times.”

It was the second consecutive start for Oxner, the former Atlantic university standout with the Saint Mary’s Huskies.

A backup to Jan-Michael Williams through the Wanderers’ first three CPL games, Oxner started in each leg against Vaughan. It was his first appearance at the Wanderers Grounds since he started for head coach Stephen Hart in the Wanderers’ exhibition match against the Fortuna Dusseldorf under-21 squad last July.

“Playing in Vaughan I was able to get some minutes under my belt and get comfortable,” Oxner said. “Coming in here today, my first home game, I knew this place from last summer and I felt pretty comfortable. I feel good.”

The Wanderers swing back into CPL action this weekend. They travel to Calgary to play Cavalry FC Saturday evening at Spruce Meadows.

“We have a busy month ahead but it’s all good,” Oxner said. “We have a lot of young guys on the squad and a lot of hungry guys who want to get minutes under their belt. We’re going to need all of the depth that we can get.”