A latch assembly for a vehicle includes a latch housing, a ratchet, a main pawl, and a cinch mechanism including a cinch pawl and a cinch link lever. When the ratchet moves to a secondary striker capture position, the cinch pawl moves into a blocking position to hold the ratchet. The cinch pawl is actuatable by a cinch lever to move the ratchet to a cinched striker capture position and the main pawl to ratchet checking position. The cinch pawl may be blocked by a stop feature formed in the latch housing in the secondary striker capture position, which resists an opening force exerted on the ratchet. The cinch pawl may be coupled to the cinch link lever, and the cinch link lever may pivot about the same post as the ratchet designed to resist high loads.