Luke Winter scored both goals as the Chattanooga Football Club defeated Nashville FC 2-0 in a National Premier Soccer League match Saturday night at Vanderbilt Stadium. Winning after a tie and a 2-1 loss in its last two games, CFC (10-2-1 overall) is 6-1-1 and has a four-point lead over the Atlanta Silverbacks Reserves in the NPSL’s Southeast Conference standings, where Nashville is in third place at 3-3-1. Chattanooga will end its regular season by hosting the Knoxville Force this coming Saturday and Nashville on July 4.
* The Chattanooga FC Academy under-16 boys’ team playing in the US Youth Soccer Region III tournament at Little Rock, Ark., lost its first two games in pool play, 3-2 to FC Florida 98 Elite White and 4-2 to FC Dallas 99 Youth Premier, and winds up the pool portion today against Pinecrest Premier RM from Florida. Florida 98 Elite is 2-0 in Pool B. Ten state associations are represented.
Golf
* For the third year in a row, Danny Green of Jackson and Steve Golliher of Knoxville are the Tennessee Senior Four-Ball golf champions, and Jim Brown of Loudon and Ron Kilgore of Knoxville won the Super Senior (65-over) title at Oak Ridge Country Club. Brown and Kilgore won 4 and 3 over Winchester’s Jess Voorhies and Brentwood’s Jim Webb in the championship match for the 65-over age group. Green and Golliher won 3-2 in Saturday’s final 55-over match against Eddie Sherlin of Gallatin, a former Cleveland State women’s basketball coach, and Dan Schorsten of Hendersonville.
* The Georgia Junior boys’ golf tournament is being held Monday through Wednesday at West Lake Country Club at Augusta, and the Georgia Girls’ Championship will be held the same days at Coosa Country Club in Rome. The boys’ field includes Crawford Collett of Lookout Mountain, Justin Hickman of Chickamauga, Jake Allston of Cohutta, Dawson Day of Trion, Gunter Jordon and Brock Stewart of Calhoun and Davis Kirk, Davis Smith, Addison Lambert, Landon Hicks, Jackson Quarles and Allen Behr of Dalton. Among the girls’ entrants are Savanah Satterfield and Tori Owens of Chatsworth, Ashleigh Peters and Carson Roberts of Dalton and Molly Mashburn, Kate Mashburn and Callie Dobson of Calhoun.
* The deadline is Friday for entering the Chattanooga Women’s Amateur Championship tournament being held July 13-17 at Lookout Mountain Golf Club. Team play is set for there on July 7. For more information or to sign up, call Pat Wilson at 423-802-3034.
High School
* Heath Thacker resigned Friday morning as boys’ basketball coach at Whitwell High School but will remain at the school as a teacher and assistant softball coach. He also will be the head softball coach at Whitwell Middle, according to a Facebook post he issued Friday. “Baseball and softball have always been my first love, and it will be good to get back in the dirt!” Thacker wrote, adding, “To my (basketball) players you will always be my family and I will always love you.” He began the post this way: “Today was one of the hardest and emotional filled days of my life. After seven years and many late hours of work it was hard taking things off the wall for the last time. My players are as close to me as (son) Caden is. Seeing them grow and mature and graduate is a very gratifying feeling.” Giving up the basketball job, though, was best for his family, he said.
Running
* John Gilpin, who ended his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga running career this spring, completed his post-Mocs local winning streak with the best overall time in the Market Street Mile on Saturday. That followed his 10-kilometer victory in the Riverbend Run on June 6 and his 4.7-mile triumph in the Chattanooga Chase on May 24. Gilpin, who is about to start physical therapy school at UTC, ran the downtown course Saturday in 4 minutes, 31 seconds. Joseph Goetz was second in 4:39.24, and Bryan Mann in 4:54.43, Ryan Heming in 4:56.27 and Lucas Stocks in 4:58.09 also had sub-five-minute miles. Amanda Cotter, another recent UTC standout, was the fastest female and ninth overall in 5:09.90, and Stocks’ wife Jenn was second and 20th overall in 5:28.73.
Diving
* Hunter Middle School sixth-grader Natalie Smallen from the Baylor Diving Club qualified for the USA Junior Olympic national meet in early August at Orlando, Fla., by finishing third in her age group’s 3-meter competition this weekend at the Zone A Championships in Huntersville, N.C. The top 10 advance to nationals. Smallen was 16th in 1-meter.