With his knowledge of past games against rival Notre Dame, Chattanooga Christian coach Shawn Brower didn’t feel good when his team went up 1-0 Tuesday.
He hardly flinched when the lead grew to 2-0 by halftime.
Finally, midway through the second half when a Jacob Warren goal put the Chargers ahead 3-0, he finally felt comfortable.
Rocklin Shumaker had both first-half goals for top-ranked CCS, and he added an assist as the Chargers made the season’s first matchup seem one-sided, defeating the third-ranked Irish 5-0 at CCS.
“When we got the first goal, I kept thinking that one of their guys was going to break through,” Brower said. “When we got the three-goal lead in the second half, I felt that we might have this thing secure.”
CCS (10-1-2) didn’t waste much time getting on the board, scoring four minutes in when Shumaker received a pass from classmate Adam Ryan, slid past Notre Dame defender Andy Helms and touched a shot past keeper Gus Wagner.
On Shumaker’s second goal — which Brower called “truly spectacular” — the wiry junior took the ball in the middle of the field, outran six Irish defenders and again scored with his left foot.
After Warren’s second-half goal, Matthias Crossman and Taylor Black had goals to provide the final margin.
Brower praised the work of senior midfielder Corey Wilson, who the coach said “played the best game I’d ever seen him play. He did everything offensively and defensively I can ask out of a center midfielder.”
Notre Dame had a game of close calls. Justin Gazick and Wes Blanton had opportunities to score in each half, only to hit shots over the goal in each instance. Other opportunities on advances were either missed or cleaned up by the CCS defense.
“We had good effort,” Irish coach Jim Schermerhorn said. “We just couldn’t connect. We couldn’t start anything offensively — part of it was the way they defended — but it was a tough game for us.”
Brower wasn’t overly pleased with his defenders’ effort early but praised them for their eighth consecutive shutout and ninth overall.
“We weren’t clean. We cleaned it up some in the second half, but we’ve still got to be better defensively,” he said. “I know it’s odd to say that because of the shutout, but they had some dangerous opportunities and guys got loose.
“We’ll likely see Notre Dame in districts and probably regions. I’m not so sure that the 5-0 spread is indicative of the two teams, so we know that with a new game and a fresh start, they’ll be coming at us.”