Scottish winger Greg Hurst burst forward in the seventh minute, with the October sun yet to set
on David Stanton Field. As he drew attention in front of the net, Sito Seoane ducked in behind
him, and cut behind his teammate like a shooting guard in basketball. Now in open space, Hurst
popped a pass to his teammate, who now had all of the space in the world only a few yards
away from the pipes. Seoane easily knocked in his seventh goal of the season, giving the
Chattanooga Red Wolves their only goal in what ended up being as a 1-1 draw in front of 512
Chattanooga fans.
“I want to say thank you (to the fans) for coming out and supporting us all year, for persevering
through some good performances and some bad performances,” said striker Eamon Zayed,
“They’ve always been optimistic, whether we won or lost or tied. Hopefully, we’ll be in a brand
new stadium next year, and hopefully it can be something all of the fans can be excited about.”
A few hours prior, such a play may have decided the Red Wolves’ playoff fate. But alas, such theatrics were not in the cards for the Chattanooga Red Wolves. Forward Madison grappled the final playoff spot earlier in the afternoon, downing Lansing Ignite FC with a 1-0 victory.
“I think the result (of the Forward Madison game) affected the result tonight, to be honest,”
said injured player and pseudo-coach Colin Falvey, when asked about the mindset of the
players , “But I thought they came and gave a good, professional performance.”
Hurst could have blown the game open in the proceeding minutes, but his accuracy was
somewhat lacking in the first half. Within a three minute span, the fleet-of-foot forward had
great opportunities on each side of the goal. And each time, his low shots to the far posts
missed by mere inches, once to the left, and then again to the right.
Chattanooga’s all-league goalkeeper Alex Mangels had another impeccable half, blocking shots
and killing corners. In the 28th minute of the 1-0 match, Toronto was hopping down the pitch
on a ruthless counterattack. Midfielder Noble Okello was the man “filling the lane” on the“Fastbreak,” and took the pass from his teammate after Toronto had stretched the Red Wolves’ defense thin.
Racing toward the prize with only Mangels in front of him, Okello appeared to have a clean look
and easy score. Mangels had other ideas though. Okello’s rocketshot was stonewalled by
Mangel’s mitts, and Red Wolves’ scare dissipated into the cool autumn night.
Jordan Perruzza, scorer of 14 goals on the season, had a solid crack at the goal in the 57th
minute. However, Mangels shut down his hopes and dreams of getting on the scoresheet with
yet another deflection. After a short instance of nervousness, where Mangels briefly bobbled
the prize, he gathered it again, ending the possession.
In the 75th minute, 35 year-old Zayed came in for what could have been the last minutes of his
career. However, Zayed later said that he expects to stay around for the next season.
“I’ll be here for another year. My contract is for another year, so I’ll be back,” said Zayed, “We’ll
sort it out over the next few weeks, but like every season, there will be players who will stay
and players who will go, but that’s down to the people in the club (management).”
The season ended on a somewhat sour note, with Perruzza finally shaking free of a stout Red
Wolves backline in the 85th minute. After making a nice run down the left side, he took the
pass and loaded up for a shot from about 15 yards out. His missile blew right past Mangels and
sank into the net, equalizing the match. Of the 18 shots Toronto took on the night, Perruzza’s
dagger was the only one to get past Mangels.
“I think that now that the season’s over, we’ll revaluate things and look at the past season, and
we’ll look to improve,” said coach David Barrueta, “There are a lot of things like man-marking,
or staying inside a person, or keeping your shape, or playing a pass in a certain area of the field.
There are all sorts of things that we can improve on fundamentally, and that’s what we need to
review.”
The Chattanooga Red Wolves finished their season 10-8-10, with a sterling 8-1-5 record at
David Stanton Field. With 40 total points on the season, the squad finished just outside of the
playoffs.