The Chattanooga Football Club earned a big conference win Saturday night.
And nearly suffered a big loss as well.
The club improved to 7-0 in National Premier Soccer League Southeast Conference play with a 2-0 win over the Birmingham Hammers in front of 4,293 at Finley Stadium. The 21 points in league play, combined with Memphis City FC’s 2-1 loss at Nashville FC, give Chattanooga FC at least a share of the conference title.
CFC plays at Memphis City (3-3-1) next Saturday and will be home on July 2 to face the New Orleans Jesters.
In the 73rd minute, Birmingham’s Jerome Williams went hard after a through ball bouncing toward Greg Hartley and slid into the CFC goalkeeper. Both stayed down after the collision, with Hartley having to be helped off the field. He returned to the bench late in the match on crutches, and his status is questionable, although the coaching staff remains optimistic he’ll return soon.
“It was a scary moment,” CFC head coach Bill Elliott said. “Greg isn’t just one of the best goalkeepers, he’s one of the best players in the NPSL. It’s frightening, but we’ve got a good medical staff. They’re going to take care of him and hopefully get him back out there soon. But with that comes an opportunity for Tom (Halsall) to play a little bit and see what he can do.”
Williams was given a red card, resulting in an automatic ejection. Hartley was replaced by Halsall, who secured the club’s fourth consecutive shutout.
David Perez assisted Samuel Goni on CFC’s first goal in the 35th minute, then scored his first career goal in the 83rd, essentially putting the match away.
CFC came out applying pressure from the opening kick. Perez had a couple of opportunities inside the box, as did Luke Winter. Even defender Danny Reynolds fired a shot that was mere inches away from the goal, but it wasn’t until Perez’s run down the right sideline, which led to a nice feed to Goni for the latter’s fourth goal of the season, that CFC was able to crack the scoreboard.
The pressure continued.
“I think it was important for us to stay patient,” Perez said. “The goals were going to come – we’ve got great quality up top – so there was no doubt the goals would come.
“It was important to get the goal in the first half and build on it in the second half.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.