Chattanooga FC Women came from behind to draw 1-1 with Georgia Impact at Tommy Bake Field at Cherokee High School on Wednesday evening to keep its hopes of finishing top of the Southeast Conference - Peachtree Division alive.
The visitors opened the scoring right before half-time when Impact's Hina Suzuki scored in the 45th minute.
However, CFC Women responded brilliantly in the second half and continuosly put the Impact backline under pressure until Chattanooga native Kennedy Ball finally found the equalizer in the 77th minute with a right-footed shot that found the bottom corner.
Chattanooga continued to push for the winner—Reese McDermott saw a shot saved in the dying seconds—however both teams would walk away with a point in the Peachtree Division standings.
"There were good moments but the reality is that we didn't put the game away when we had the opportunity and when we do that we allow other teams to have their moments and they got their goal," said Head Coach Juan Hernandez.
"It was an uphill battle from there. We need to put the game away when we have chances and we had the chances today.
"I'm extremely proud of the girls. It's really hard to do what their doing constantly. They're fighting through it. We knew the game was going to be ugly and so it was. Both teams were fighting to win, which is respectable. As a coaching staff, we are really proud of them.
"We did one job today, which was to continue to get points, especially away, and we're still in the fight. That's the important part. The goal is to continue to be playing games that are meaningful in order to get to the postseason and we did that today."
Chattanooga returns to action on Tuesday, June 24th with a penultimate regular season match at Atlanta Fire United with kick-off set for 7:00 p.m. ET.
Athlete of the Match: Jordan Crockett
Box Score
Georgia Impact (2W-3L-1D, 7 pts.) - Chattanooga FC Women (4W-1L-1D, 13 pts.)
Cherokee High School | Canton, Ga.
Final Score:
GI: 1
CFC: 1
Scoring Summary:
45’: Hina Suzuki - GI
77': Kennedy Ball - CFC