The Chattanooga Football Club is sprinting toward this week's National Premier Soccer League playoffs with a lot of momentum.
Chattanooga FC dominated the New Orleans Jesters with a 3-0 win Saturday night in front of 5,326 at Finley Stadium. Having already clinched the top postseason seed in the NPSL's Southeast Conference, CFC (10-1-2, 8-0-1) still has one more regular-season match, Tuesday at Knoxville.
Memphis City FC (5-3-2) defeated Knoxville (4-5) on Saturday, 2-1, and earned the second seed in its first season. New Orleans (4-4-2) will be the three seed, while Birmingham's 2-1 win over Nashville FC gives Knoxville the final spot.
After playing at Knoxville on Tuesday, CFC will host the same club at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the conference semifinals at Finley Stadium. New Orleans and Memphis will meet in the first match Friday, at 5.
Will Roberts scored two goals Saturday, giving him four for the season and moving into a tie for second on the team with Samuel Goni, one goal behind Luke Winter. Kieran Bywater scored the winners' first goal in the 27th minute, his second of the season.
The three goals were the club's highest scoring output since a four-goal match against the Knoxville Force on June 7.
"It's been coming all season," Roberts said. "You can tell by the way we've been playing. We've looked good, but we've just missed that clinical finish at the end, but everything was clicking tonight. It all came together. I was just lucky I was there around my teammates to get two goals."
Roberts credited veteran teammates such as midfielder Matt Aldred for being leaders when the match started to get chippy in the second half, with the outcome no longer in doubt.
"He talks a lot," Roberts said. "He keeps everyone composed and calm. Some of us are younger, but we're still learning a lot. It's moments like that when experience really comes in."
CFC coach Bill Elliott saw his offense click and his defense post its fifth shutout in the last six matches. The focus already has begun to shift toward the playoffs.
"Tonight we got a little luck. The ball bounced the right way for us," Elliott said. "It seems it's been bouncing the wrong way, so it was nice to get that little bounce the right way, get the ball in the back of the net and put the game out of reach going into the final 10-15 minutes.
"We certainly looked good tonight. New Orleans is a really good team and we looked sharp against them, but it's what we do next Friday that really matters."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp