photo by Joseph Dycus
For the majority of the match, Ronaldo Dumas floated around the pitch, suffocated by the Red Wolves defense for 86 minutes. Rendered invisible, the high-scoring 19 year-old was a ghost, unable to impose his skills on the match. That all changed in the 87th, when Dumas wrangled a Arturo Rodriguez pass away from Chattanooga’s back line, and slotted in a short-range shot to ice the match. His tenth score of the season secured North Texas’ 2-0 win over the Chattanooga Red Wolves.
This loss was Chattanooga’s first ever at David Stanton Field.
“We got outplayed tonight. They won all of the 50-50 balls. We never constructed any shots in the first half,” said coach Tim Hankinson, “We were never going tight to the man to disrupt or tackle, and therefore they had free play. I’m very disappointed in how we played the game, after focusing on that all week, and we were just beaten by a team that wanted it more than us.”
North Texas began the match by controlling possession. While they were able to consistently get the ball near the box, their shots were errant, with some being blocked and others going wide. When Chattanooga was able to pry the ball away from North Texas, their surges were blunted by an alert Texan keeper who intercepted Vangjel Zguro’s crosses twice in the first ten minutes.
The next 20 minutes saw neither team make any headway in the scoring department. While both squads had their fair share of corner kicks and half-decent crosses, neither side was able to finish. One particularly galling example of a chance wasted came with around 15 or so minutes gone by in the match. Vangjel Zguro was racing down the field, unattended and beckoning for the ball. However, the pass wasn’t as good as it could have been, and by the time Zguro caught up to the ball, the defense was back in position and thwarted the attack.
In the 34th minute, the scoreless draw was finally broken. After defending yet another North Texas corner kick, the Red Wolves were unable to actually clear the ball. This gave Arturo Rodriguez a crack at the goal, one he failed at converting. Alex Mangels whipped away the shot, but still kept it in the box. Callum Montgomery was the lucky recipient of the rebound, and he was not going to miss his scoring shot.
Juan Mare was able to draw a yellow card after his reckless drive into the teeth of the Texas defense, but the infraction was committed just outside the box. With Tony Walls forced to loft a free kick rather than an unimpeded penalty shot, the more difficult attempt sailed high over the crossbar and through the uprights behind it. While it looked nice, the field goal did not count for anything, and the Red Wolves walked into halftime down 1-0.
The start of the second half saw a much-anticipated lineup change. Out came Juan Mare, who turned down several shots and appeared to play tentatively. In his place was the fleet-of-foot newcomer Greg Hurst, whose speed produced the game-winning assist last week. However, no player could replace their missing captain Steven Beattie, who was suspended after accumulating too many yellow cards.
“Steven is our most gutsiest, most experienced (player). He’s our player with the most steel and grit in his game, and that resonates among the players,” said the coach, “We didn’t have that tonight.”
The 52nd minute exposed the Red Wolves faithful to even more heartbreak, as a Vangjel Zguro corner kick landed in the box. Over the next 15 seconds, the Red Wolves were unable to knock the ball into the net, despite pounding away from short-range. The Red Wolves repeated this feat in the 70th minute, when Nicholas Amponsah took the rebound off of the corner kick and had an unguarded look at the goal from five feet away. Amponsah’s chip shot sailed high.
“We work on it, and some of the services were very good,” said coach Hankinson of Chattanooga’s set pieces, “You know, once the ball is up in the air, whether it’s a corner kick or a service, it’s a 50-50 ball. And so it really comes down to whose got the greater desire to get it—to go up first, be up in the air before the other guy gets his chance, and attack the ball in the air.”
After Dumas’ backbreaking strike, the Red Wolves’ fate was sealed. They will have to re-organize on the road, where Chattanooga plays their next four matches.
“All we can do now is get into our recovery session tomorrow, knowing we have to get on a bus Tuesday to go to Tormenta,” said coach Hankinson.