OTTAWA – Ottawa Fury FC rallied from a halftime deficit to take a 2-1 victory against Toronto FC in the first leg of the Canadian Championship Semifinal series, as a crowd of 7,611 fans at TD Place took in the history first meeting in the tournament between the two Ontario clubs.

Ottawa, which also took victory at home against Vancouver Whitecaps FC in the competition a year ago, and Toronto will meet in the second leg of the series next Wednesday night at BMO Field, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. ET.

Both teams had chances inside the opening 15 minutes. Toronto’s Armando Cooper shot well wide after a good piece of build-up play between Tsubasa Endoh and Jay Chapman on the right, while Ottawa’s Sito Seoane forced a save from Clint Irwin from 25 yards with a low shot to the left corner.

The visitors took the lead in the 35th minute, though, as 2016 Canadian Championship MVP Benoit Cheyrou picked up where he left off a season ago with his first goal of this year’s tournament. An excellent give-and-go with Jordan Hamilton at the top of the penalty area sprang Cheyrou into the box where his chipped finish beat Callum Irving.

Fury FC had another late chance from a free kick that saw Irwin save well at his right post from Williams’ curling effort with four minutes to go. Toronto then almost grabbed an equalizer in stoppage time through Tosaint Ricketts as Callum Irving saved from close range before a scramble resulted in a Toronto foul, and in the ensuing fallout TFC’s Raheem Edwards was shown a second yellow card and sent off.

Ottawa held on from there to take a historic victory, and will now take a one-goal advantage to BMO Field next Wednesday night.