The Chattanooga Red Wolves took on South Georgia Tormenta FC for the final time this season Saturday night at CHI Memorial Stadium in a high scoring affair with a final 4-4 result. The Red Wolves pulled out another last minute goal performance after Tormenta took a late one goal lead to split points with the visitors. Chevone Marsh extended his scoring streak to four games and picked up his eleventh goal of the season with Ropapa Mensah scoring two including the game tying tally and Nico Cardona getting his second of the year.
In a four goal first half, Chattanooga began their press early in the match, carrying 67.9% possession through the first 15 minutes. Tormenta found the back of the net first with a goal in the 13th minute from Pedro Fonseca for an early 1-0 lead. Ropapa Mensah responded with his seventh goal of the season in the 17th minute after powering through a Tormenta defensive tandem to even the score at 1-1; however, the visitors answered just three minutes later with their second of the night off the foot of Kazaiah Sterling. The two clubs battled back and forth in the subsequent minutes, with Ropapa Mensah nearly collecting his second of the match with a hard shot that just tipped over the crossbar. The ball, having deflected off of a Tormenta player, went out for a Red Wolves corner kick–Nico Cardona headed the ball to the back corner to even the match at two apiece for his second of the year, leading the teams to head to the locker rooms evened up, 2-2.
The second half began with the Red Wolves building off of the momentum of the final minutes of the first. The match entered a brief delay due to weather in the 59th minute, but the Red Wolves came out of the stoppage scoring four minutes into the restart. Chevone Marsh powered through the Tormenta defense and knocked the ball past the falling keeper to give Chattanooga a 3-2 lead, their first of the game.
Both sides continued to play tough end to end, and South Georgia managed to find the back of the net in the 74th minute to equalize. The action continued to vacillate across the pitch as each side worked to pull ahead in the final quarter of the match, with Fonseca collecting his second goal of the match to bring the score to 4-3 in favor of the visitors.
Tormenta continued to pressure the Red Wolves defense as time waned and as the home side worked to force a draw and walk away with a point through extra time. Mensah found the ball following a corner kick from Jonny Filipe for the equalizer to force a comeback draw.
“We talk about knowing your role and excelling in your role and doing your role,” said head coach, Scott Mackenzie. “We talk about the details–if we get the details right, you’ve seen that we can be a good, successful football team. We’ve got to figure out how to do it for 90 minutes and not 60-70 minutes.”
The Red Wolves play once more at home on Saturday, September 2nd against Forward Madison FC for $2 Beer Night.