After taking the lead early, Northern Colorado fall to Chattanooga.
CHATTANOOGA, TN – It was quite a homecoming for some members of Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC. Head coach Éamon Zayed holds a special place in Chattanooga Red Wolves history, scoring their first ever home goal. Assistant coach Kevin Sawchak was an assistant here the last two seasons, as well as midfielder Marky Hernández playing there those seasons as well.
It only took five minutes for the first chance to come in the match. A free kick by Arthur Rogers was centered by Brecc Evans for Irvin Parra, Parra’s headed attempt was cleared off the line to keep the score at 0-0. Only three minutes later a ball over the top by Hernández for Stefan Lukic set Lukic free to run and grab the first goal of his professional career. It was Hernández’s first assist of the season in his first start of the campaign. “Felt great (to get back out there), my hamstring felt way better, just happy to play again. I’ve been struggling with injuries so I’m happy to get on the pitch,” said Hernández.
After 26 minutes the Red Wolves found a way through with a cross that was brought down and centered for a tap-in by David Texeira. The scores would stay level until a corner kick right before half time would see Chattanooga head home another to take the lead at the break.
Five minutes after the break things went from bad to worse for the Hailstorm, after another corner Lukic was unable to clear and Texeira found the back of the net again. As the clock struck the hour mark, another set piece found its way into the back of the net and courtesy of José
Carrera-Garcia. The Hailstorm saw a few chances to narrow the scoreline including a free kick by Daniel Scally that beat the keeper but rang off the post. It ended 4-1, sending Chattanooga to the top of the standings.
It was a night to forget for Northern Colorado. “I feel like the big difference between the two teams was, they wanted it more on the night. They didn’t create too much. We switched off on set pieces, which is extremely unlike us. It’s one of the areas where we are most solid,” said Zayed. “Two positives, one, we have a game straight away to turn this around. As a team that’s what you want. Another positive is, six games we’ve played and we’ve scored first every game.”
Wednesday the Hailstorm take a trip to Union Omaha for the Round of 32 in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Up next on the USL League One slate for the Hailstorm will be the second trip of the season to Charlotte on May 18th.