With their worst-to-first turnaround already complete, the Chattanooga Football Club women were able to play a lot more relaxed soccer Sunday evening.
They exacted a little revenge in the process, too.
Despite having to sit through a weather delay of nearly one hour, CFC continued its run through the Women’s Premier Soccer League’s Southeast Conference with a 2-0 win over the Memphis Lobos at Finley Stadium.
CFC (7-1) clinched its conference and a postseason berth Thursday with a 5-1 win over the Emerald Force Soccer Club in Knoxville, with Jess Shepherd and Cass Wade scoring two goals apiece and Ashleigh Cade chipping in the fifth.
The goals were a lot harder to come by Sunday against Memphis (4-4), but Summer Lanter put CFC on the board with extra effort in the 38th minute. The former Soddy-Daisy and Lee University standout started in the middle of the box, attempted to dribble to her left and cross the ball in, recovered the ball when it was deflected and fired a low shot past the goalkeeper for the 1-0 edge.
Another former area standout, Sam DeBien, scored early in the second half. The former Cleveland High and current Middle Tennessee State University player intercepted a pass from the Memphis defense and nailed a shot in the 61st minute.
Sunday’s match represented a big swing from the teams’ first meeting of the season a week earlier, when the Lobos defeated a short-handed CFC 4-0 in Memphis.
“You can’t get mad about that,” CFC coach Erin Ridley said. “We took a team that wasn’t at full strength to Memphis, and that’s fine. It’s just the reality of this league sometimes. We felt like tonight was a chance to get back to doing what we’ve been doing. We’ve been getting better as a team, and we looked at the one game in Memphis as an aberration.
“Instead of getting upset, taking it personally, we just said, ‘It is what it is.’ We moved on, solved the soccer problems, came out and did what we’ve been building towards.”
Cosette Morché – who is leaving the team to head back to College Station, Texas, to prepare for her senior season at Texas A&M – earned the win in goal for CFC. Sunday’s result extended the team’s record for wins in a season and continued the progress that has resulted since winning just three matches two years ago and one in 2017.
CFC’s regular-season finale is next Sunday at Finley Stadium against Cincinnati Sirens FC of the Ohio Valley Conference. CFC, the only team in the WPSL’s South Region to have already clinched its conference, will host a first-round playoff match the following weekend.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.