As Chattanooga Christian sophomore striker Drew Bolano took a moment to reflect on a very successful Friday night, he quickly realized the key focus of the Chargers’ practices this week rang true with the chords of a winning tune against visiting Notre Dame.
“We’ve been talking all week about finishing, and that’s exactly what we did tonight,” said Balano, who scored twice and had an assist to pace the Chargers’ 5-0 District 7-A/AA victory. “We were fired up to play in a rivalry game. We needed a win and we were able to finish off our opportunities.”
The Chargers (3-6-1, 1-1-1) converted on five of their first eight shots in the match with Balano scoring on the team’s first attempt six minutes in. About 20 minutes later, Balano assisted on the Chargers’ second goal by delivering a perfectly placed corner kick that Johnmark Duble headed home.
While the strong defensive play of Paul Fortmiller, John Love and Barrot Bickley limited the Irish to three shots for theh first half and five for the match, Notre Dame narrowly missed two goal opportunities as Michael Quatrano hammered a pair of strong blasts off the crossbar.
Along with Quatrano in the midfield, Notre Dame (4-10-1, 2-1) received strong defensive play from Jared Henry.