CCS's River Sarratt tries to get around Notre Dame's Alex Tuttle.
photo by Greg Davick
It took a second chance to move the Chattanooga Christian boys’ soccer team into first place in District 7-A/AA.
Midway through the second half of Friday night’s rivalry match against Notre Dame, Chargers’ senior forward Drew Bolano asked for 10 yards on a free kick.
In the delay before his request was granted, Bolano took his shot just before the referee’s whistle blew again, and was then awarded another opportunity.
Bolano’s second attempt bent perfectly into the goal, and proved to be the decisive play in Chattanooga Christian’s 1-0 victory.
“That definitely worked out in our favor,” Chargers’ coach Jimmy Weekley said. “It was a good goal.”
The opportunities for a CCS goal had been minimal throughout the first half, while Notre Dame created a few opportunities during the first 40 minutes of the battle for the district regular-season title.
“I thought Notre Dame kind of outplayed us in the first half,” Weekley said. “They created the more dangerous chances. I think we were dangerous once in the first half. We’ve been experimenting with a bunch of formations, and each game we’ve played something different. Today we tried to settle back into something I think we’re better in. I think it’s just going to take us a while to get there.”
Junior forward Brett Bowman had several near-misses for the Chargers early in the second half, and Bolano sent one just wide with 26 minutes remaining in the scoreless game. About six minutes later, Bowman just missed the opportunity to finish a cross, but CCS continued pressing in the minutes leading up to Bolano’s goal.
“I thought we were better in the second half,” Weekley said. “We were a little more composed on the ball, especially when we got forward. There were a couple other good chances we had but just didn’t put away.”
The Irish also had several good opportunities that they were unable to finish, including a header with 13:48 remaining that CCS keeper Micaiah Allison was in perfect position to grab, and a free kick from Alex Tuttle that sailed just over the goal in stoppage time.
“I thought the whole game was pretty even,” Notre Dame coach Jim Schermerhorn said. “We kind of figured it was going to be a 1-0 game. We did a lot of things really well, so it’s frustrating to do that and not get the result you wanted. We had the chances, but I guess we were just unlucky. We have guys who are pretty good at shooting the ball, but they were just over.”
Schermerhorn named Rhys Robertson, Milan Card and Tuttle as key players in the Irish’s effort on Friday, while Weekley praised the defensive efforts of Ian Gaines, Stephen Cone, Mack Erickson and Michael Minnick in shutting out the Irish. With the win, the Chargers improve to 6-2-1 overall and 3-0 in district play, which should guarantee CCS the top seeding in the upcoming district tournament.
“We needed the result tonight for district reasons, and I’m proud of the boys for how hard they played,” Weekley said. “We have room to improve a lot of things, but I can’t question their effort. I thought that was fantastic. Notre Dame is a very solid team, very dangerous attacking wise. I thought we did a really good job limiting their chances in the second half.”
The Irish are now 1-1 in the district, and their match next Friday at Signal Mountain will determine their postseason position.
(E-mail Jaime Barrett at jaimenbarrett@gmail.com)