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Cavalry’s first regular-season championship was historic.

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This one?

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It comes with all the bells and whistles.

There’s a trophy for the club’s case, a ticket to the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup and first place clinched for the Canadian Premier League playoffs — all because of Cavalry’s 1-0 win early Saturday over host York United FC combined with Pacific FC’s 3-1 loss to Forge FC later in the day.

“It’s massive,” said Cavalry midfielder and leader Charlie Trafford, himself a native Calgarian. “It means so much. This club puts so much into this. The Spruce Meadows group, they do such a good job for us. I know at the end of the day, they’re trying to build the game here. But we’re a professional team, and they demand trophies.

“We say good things about our fans and what they bring to us. And at the end of the day, they demand trophies. And the gaffer, he’s here to win trophies. And so, that’s why we’re all here. It’s the business end of the things.”

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Yes, Saturday was part-business for the Cavalry, and then it was all celebration.

The win — on Sergio Camargo’s first-half goal and fifth of the season at York Lions Stadium — pushed the Cavs to 14-7-5 on the CPL campaign and to the brink of securing the regular-season title.

Then on their flight home from Toronto, GM/head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. and his charges watched as Pacific (11-7-9) fell to Forge (11-9-6), making the Cavs’ lead on 49 points insurmountable at the top of the table for the respective third- and second-place teams in the eight-team domestic circuit.

And that meant party time.

“Me and Gaffer Tommy played together in 2009 and even before that since I was young,” said the 31-year-old Trafford. “And when we won a national title together in 2009, we joked exactly about doing this. He said, ‘You go chase your dream — you go play wherever you want, and I’ll stay here and keep building the stuff in Calgary, and you come back one day and win us a trophy.’

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“It’s pretty cool that he’s gone and fulfilled his side of it and (I’ve fulfilled) my side of the promise.”

The Cavs have actually fulfilled it once before, having won both the spring and fall parts of the schedule back in the CPL’s inaugural year to become the uncontested 2019 regular-season champs.

But there was no trophy in place for the league’s regular-schedule winners — only the North Star Shield for the playoff victors, which was Forge after shutting down Cavalry in the two-game, total-goal finale.

This time around — thanks to 2022-installed CPL commissioner Mark Noonan and new league goals — the Cavs do get hardware.

The newly-minted Canadian Premier League Shield is theirs to salute.

“We got a healthy chip on our shoulder for the way 2019 ended up, because I think we should’ve had something,” Wheeldon said. “But that’s just me.”

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It’s actually a whole five years worth of players and fans, Coach.

So this can be celebrated by all.

“This team has been pushing for this trophy for five years now,” Trafford said. “It means so much.”

“We’ve done a lot of great work through developing the way Spruce Meadows looks — like a football facility — to the fanbase that we’ve created to the Foot Soldiers and the other supporters’ groups and families and kids coming out and club programs and camps,” agreed Wheeldon. “But for me … Mrs. (Marg) Southern, who was our first ticket-holder, she’s put a lot of work in behind the scenes. And the whole Southern family are proud of this community. And why shouldn’t Calgary be a championship-winning city?”

There is another championship — actually, two — to be chased by the regular-season prize-winners.

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Of course, they’ll head into the post-season in three weeks time to go for the CPL double-dip, trying as well to cash in as playoff champs.

And regardless of that result, they’ll compete next year in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly the CONCACAF Champions League and an annual continental club competition contested by top clubs from all over North America. That’s the other bonus that wasn’t there for them in 2019.

But they’ve grabbed that, too, with Saturday’s scorelines, even if it was — as Trafford said — “not our strongest, for sure.

“But our team unity is so good,” the veteran continued. “We’re a family out there. We’re fighting for each other. We know we can suffer together.”

Agreed Wheeldon, “It was a gritty performance versus a pretty performance. And I think that’s what this team is about. There’s a humbleness and a hunger about them. When you haven’t won anything yet, they’re still hungry about that. We’re good first half and average second half (Saturday). But we thought if we’re not going to connect on passes, we’ll just see the game out. We relied on that a little bit too much. So many of them said afterwards, ‘Sorry, Gaf, it wasn’t my best performance. We can be better.’ And that’s the spirit you want going into the business end of the season.

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“This is a really special group, and I wish nothing but success for them. I’m humbled to be able to work for them.”

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After Saturday’s 39th-minute only-goal-of-the-game by the dynamic Camargo — when Myer Bevan sprinted onto Shamit Shome’s tap pass through York’s backline before crossing it through the penalty area for the goal-scorer — the defence came through late for Cavalry to help get superstar goalkeeper Marco Carducci — brilliant himself on the day — his seventh clean-sheet of the year. “We know when we go into that low block, we’re hard to beat,” Trafford said. “And then we’ve got guys — the Sergios, the (Ali) Musses, the Bevans — enough for us to get results. So we know if we can hold that clean-sheet — Ducci was unbelievable — we’re so hard to beat. We have the confidence right now and things are going our way.” … Cavs midfielder Jesse Daley returned from suspension for the match … The Cavs’ Starting XI was: goalie Carducci; defenders Eryk Kobza, Daan Klomp and Bradley Kamdem Fewo; midfielders Daley, Shome, Camargo, Trafford and Mael Henry; and forwards Musse and Bevan … The club’s subs were: goalie Sterling Kerr; defenders Tom Field and Callum Montgomery; midfielders Ben Fisk and Fraser Aird; and forwards Joe Mason and Gareth Smith-Doyle … Cavalry scratches were: goalie Joseph Holliday; defenders Udoka Chima, Michael Harms and Roberto Alarcón; midfielders Tate Asante and Nikolas Myroniuk; and forwards Willy Akio (thigh) and Ethan Beckford.

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