Julian Bazile moves the ball along the sideline as C-J’s Egide Bahati moves in to defend.
Ron Nunnari | The Register-Herald
CLAYTON — Nevin Smith scored a goal less than five minutes into the match Thursday to give Northmont a 1-0 lead against Chaminade-Julienne, but the Eagles rallied with five unanswered goals to walk away with the victory.
Joey Zimmerman scored C-J’s first goal on a penalty kick at 27:37. Northmont goalkeeper Ethan Crist blocked the shot but the ball bounced back out into the box and Zimmerman hammered the rebound into the top of the net.
Crist was injured on the play with Jaden Green stepping in to handle the goalkeeper duties.
C-J boosted its lead to 2-1 on a goal by Tayonne Turner with 25:46 left in the first half and at the 19:50 mark A.J. Yates scored to boost the Eagles’ lead to 3-1.
Goals by Kay Mupenda at 31:32 in the second half and by Benjamin Milemba with 7:20 remaining capped the 5-1 victory for C-J.
With the victory the Eagles improved to 2-1-0 while the Thunderbolts dropped to 1-1-0.
“It’s frustrating because we got up early and then gave up that PK and you could see a noticeable drop in some of the guys and it just kind of became infectious after that,” said Northmont coach Bob Brown. “It was a really good save and it was unfortunate that it went right back to him. It was a rough spot for our backup Jaden Green to come in like that so fast.”
Smith suffered a hamstring injury just before halftime to hamper Northmont’s hopes of making a second half comeback.
“Nevin getting hurt right before halftime was a big loss and a couple other guys suffered injuries,” Brown noted. “We are down to 17 players so I don’t have a ton of depth, so when you lose three starters in the first 40 minutes – it’s rough.”
The Thunderbolts have two key conference games this week at Centerville (Tuesday) and at home against Fairmont on Thursday.
Reach Ron Nunnari at (937) 684-9124 or email [email protected].
