The Chattanooga Red Wolves have conquered the Richmond Kickers with a score of 5-0.
Rain or shine, it’s game time. There were puddles on the pitch and pressure in the air, but there were also over 1,200 fans in the stands, and that was all the spirit the Wolves needed.
Charging onto that damp field as a golden elegance split the clouds, the pack encircled Richmond within minutes, yielding no quarter to their unknowing opponents.
Just four minutes in, Ropapa Mensah whipped a wonder by the Kicker’s goalie, screaming Chattanooga’s hunger for all to hear. Following suite in the 10th was Omar Gomez, maneuvering around the pools with a dancer’s precision to find the back of the net.
Having put Richmond into a state of shock, play calmed for a season. After some back and forth, Richmond took a solid strike toward the Wolves’ goal, which Jason Smith sent into oblivion with a rocket-like punch. When a second attempt landed just close, he kicked it away, and as a third strike lay in wait, he threw himself over the ball to deny the opportunity.
At halftime, the score stood 2-0. Roaring straight into the second half was Matt Bentley, who at 47 minutes, added a third goal to the tally with an electrifying strike. Richmond struggled to recover, but nothing they could say or do seemed to be of any help. Omar Hernandez nailed the top-left corner of the goal in the 57th, stretching the chasm between the teams ever farther.
Following that fourth score was a series of substitutions - playing well on a wet field is more draining than usual, of course. In came Mercer, Lombardi, Engmann, and Donoho. As if that wasn’t magical enough, Mensah seized a brace for himself in the eightieth, earning the final goal of the game. By the final whistle, Richmond had been undeniably leveled, 5-0.