photo by Greg Davick
Sito Seoane appears to have a gift for scoring at home. The shot-happy striker has knocked in six goals on the season, and all of those volleys have come at David Stanton Field. Seoane began Chattanooga’s 2-1 win over Orlando City B with a cheeky effort in the 34th minute.
Seoane toasted the deepest defender, getting to the ball before any other Orlando player was able to on the counterattack. With the ball on the right-hand side of the pitch, Seoane had plenty of space to make a move.
He decided to glide left across the box for several steps.
The forward then planted his foot in the ground, and used his other one to power a shot at the goal. His shot was slightly errant, and it deflected off of an idle defender’s leg. However, the deflected shot took a Chattanooga bounce, and found its way right past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.
“I’m just proud of the guys. We still have things to clean up, but the effort was there tonight,” said coach David Barrueta.
In added time right before the halftime break, Leonardo Simas evened the score with a goal of his own. He did not get to finish the game, due to incurring a couple of yellow cards. Greg Hurst, the fleet of foot Scottish forward, drew at least four fouls on his own, as Orlando City appeared to be stuck in the grass when faced with his speed.
Chattanooga scored what would become the winning goal in the 54th minute. Josue Soto paced down the left sideline, getting the smallest of steps on his defender. Soto then lifted a gift into the box, finding the diving head of Tony Walls. The attack-minded defender made good contact with the ball on the far side of the goal, and he pushed the ball around the keeper for Chattanooga’s second score.
While the stat sheet showed that Chattanooga only possessed the ball for 47 percent of the time during the second half, this is the definition of a deceptive statistic. The Red Wolves controlled the pace of the match, and Hurst and company drew countless fouls against a breathless Orlando squad who just wanted to keep up.
“Greg’s just got great experience coming in from the Scottish leagues,” said coach Barrueta,
“He’s a fun guy to have in practice and he adds something in the game.”
Orlando City made one final push in the waning minutes of the match. Within the added minutes, Tanner Hummel stumbled into the final third with several targets in the box. He sent a rather threatening cross toward his peers, who were ready to equalize the score with a well-placed header. Goalkeeper Alex Mangels dashed those dreams in mere seconds, as he unfurled his 6’5 frame and intercepted the pass.
Chattanooga came away with three points in their first home game in almost a month, and their first game since head coach Tim Hankinson was put on paid leave of absence since Friday. When asked about the status of the coach, general manager Sean McDaniel simply said “We’ve said it all in the (press) release.”
Next week sees the Red Wolves back on the road, as they duel the Richmond Kickers in Virginia on Saturday.