There was a mass turnover in the lineup for the Chattanooga Football Club in its National Premier Soccer League Southeast Conference match Saturday night against Nashville FC, as eight of the 11 starters were different from Wednesday's U.S. Open Cup match.
Yet the team still produced another win.
Samuel Goni and Luke Winter had second-half goals, and Chattanooga FC was able to hold on for a 2-1 victory in front of 5,593 fans at Finley Stadium.
After three matches in the first eight days of the season, CFC doesn't play again until Friday, when it hosts the Steinbrecher Cup with three of the top amateur clubs in the country coming to Chattanooga.
It took a while to really get going, as CFC didn't scratch the scoring column until the 55th minute when Goni worked his way around a defender on the left side, took a step and fired a low shot past the keeper. The margin doubled seven minutes later when John Carrier broke free and fed a pass to Winter, who made it 2-0.
"I think we know each other well," Winter said. "We broke their defense down a bit in the first half, then talked at halftime how we could break them dow. We work well together, and it paid off today."
Nashville trimmed the deficit in half in the 87th minute when Denzel Woods nailed a shot past CFC goalkeeper Greg Hartley. After the goal, Woods was given a yellow card for an exchange with Hartley that ended with the keeper on the ground.
"I was getting the ball out of the goal, wasting a bit of time like you always do," Hartley explained. "He wanted to get the ball out of the net and got a little frustrated. I didn't want to get involved in it, so I hit the floor and got out of the way. I've seen things like that happen, I've seen red cards for stuff like that, but sometimes nothing is given because it's in the heat of the moment.
"I don't think the official wanted to give the red card because he didn't want to spoil the game, and I think he knew I went down easier."
Hartley added, laughing: "Next time I'll stand up and face him."
He and his teammates can now look ahead to Friday, when they'll face Quinto Elemento of the United States Adult Soccer Association at 7:30. Chicago Fire of the Premier Development League and West Chester United, the USASA Open Cup champion, face off in the other semifinal.
"It was a tough game," CFC coach Bill Elliott said. "It could have gone either way, I think, until we got the goal. That opened up the game a bit, and we got a few more chances. We got two great goals, but I felt with a little more quality we should have had a third.
"We didn't see the game out as well as I would have liked. We kind of gave them an opportunity for a goal out of nothing because we didn't clear the ball, then we had to fight the last few minutes and hang on. It wasn't as clean as I would have liked, but it goes in the right column so I'll take it."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.