The Chattanooga Red Wolves scored five goals for the third time this season, and they remained in the USL League One playoff hunt with Saturday night’s 5-2 win against Forward Madison FC in Wisconsin.
Chattanooga (10-9-6) scored three goals in the first 30 minutes, blazing to a 4-1 halftime lead over Madison (7-7-11) thanks to goals by Alex Tejera, Nico Cardona, Daniel Navarro and Rey Ortiz.
Juan Galindrez scored his franchise-leading 21st goal with the Red Wolves late in the second half as he made his 50th all-time appearance for the club.
Chattanooga now has a plus-13 goal differential for the season and is fourth in the league standings at 36 points along with South Georgia Tormenta. The Red Wolves are behind Richmond (12-7-5, 41 points), Omaha (10-3-10, 40) and Greenville (11-8-6, 39) with five regular-season matches remaining.
The Red Wolves return to competition against Richmond next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at CHI Memorial Stadium in East Ridge.
Chattanooga FC wins at home
The fifth goal of the first half between the Chattanooga Football Club and the Los Angeles Force was the final score and decided the match.
Ian Cerro scored what proved to be the winner in the 44th minute as Chattanooga FC came back from a 2-1 deficit to triumph 3-2 in front of the home fans at Finley Stadium.
Rod Underwood’s team now leads the National Independent Soccer Association with 39 points as Chattanooga improved to 11-3-6. The Force are 2-7-6.
Marcus Naglestad opened the scoring in the eighth minute, while Alex McGrath sent in an equalizer in the 33rd. CFC forward Taylor Gray was sharp in the victory and was named man of the match.
CFC’s next match is on the road, Sept. 18 against the Michigan Stars. The next match at Finley Stadium is Sept. 24 against Flower City Union on Juan Hernandez bobblehead night at Finley Stadium.
Compiled by Patrick MacCoon. Contact him at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.