Ryan Becher scored his fifth goal of 2026 – and fourth in USL League One play – but it wasn’t enough to prevent Fort Wayne Football Club from a tough 2-1 loss to Chattanooga Red Wolves SC at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium on Saturday night.
“It’s always good to get a goal, but it’s the result that matters and I’m leaving frustrated,” said Becher, whose club has lost four in a row but is 7-7-6 overall and 10th on the table with 27 points – only four back of Chattanooga (10-7-1) for the eighth and final playoff spot.
“Sometimes it doesn’t go your way and we’ve been in a situation the last few games where we’ve had chances, they just haven’t fallen our way. We’ve got to stick to it, keep getting at it, and we’ll (eventually) put the chances away.”
Becher scored Saturday with a volley off a Javier Armas corner kick in the 30th minute, giving the Autumn Gold & Black a lead in front of 4,090 fans.
But the offense was frustrated the rest of the way; Chattanooga goalkeeper Jason Smith finished with five saves in the victory and got some help in second-half stoppage time when an Armas free kick from just outside the penalty area ricocheted off the right post, then just missed crossing the goal line.
The Red Wolves got goals from Yanis Lelin in the 49th minute and Greyson Mercer in the 82nd.
It was the second meeting between the clubs. Fort Wayne FC won 1-0 on the road April 11, when Taig Healy scored 44 seconds into the match – setting a Fort Wayne FC club record for fastest goal – and Bernd Schipmann had three saves for the clean sheet in Fort Wayne FC’s first victory in the professional ranks.
That match featured 12 cards. Saturday’s had seven in what seems a fledgling rivalry.
Fort Wayne FC outshot Chattanooga Red Wolves 16-8 and allowed only two shots on target with Schipmann in net.
The Autumn Gold & Black now have time to recover with their next match Aug. 29 at the 12th-place Portland Hearts of Pine (5-8-6).
“It’s a long season,” Fort Wayne FC coach Mike Avery said. “You need to catch your breath when you can. This gives us a couple weeks for bumps and bruises to heal. Hopefully, we’ll be back at full strength because we’ve got a really tough stretch of games coming up.”
It was Fort Wayne FC’s first match since the transfer of striker Lilian Ricol, who went to USL Championship’s San Antonio FC on Friday for a near-record fee for a player going from USL League One to the Championship level. Ricol, the reigning USL League One Player of the Month, was the first player transferred by Fort Wayne FC since it joined professional soccer this year.
On Saturday, Fort Wayne FC led in time of possession, 69.3% to 30.7%, and had 10 of the match’s 13 corner kicks.
“I don’t love that we didn’t come out of the game with anything tonight because, obviously, we could have,” said Avery, who coaches the youngest of USL League One’s 17 clubs. “But we’re going to learn lessons and keep going forward.”
Fort Wayne FC’s supporters group, the Three Rivers Regiment, collected $821.81 to support those impacted by wildfires in the Spokane, Washington, area. USL League One has a team in Spokane, the Spokane Velocity FC, that has faced Fort Wayne FC twice this season with the clubs splitting the pair of matches.
Also on Saturday, the Three Rivers Regiment unveiled their first ever Tifo and it featured Avery with the caption “In Mike We Trust.” Avery has coached Fort Wayne FC in all six seasons of its play, including five in the pre-professional level of USL League Two, and he has a career record of 46-28-19 that includes division titles in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
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Box score
FORT WAYNE FC 1-0-1
CHATTANOOGA RED WOLVES SC 0-2-2
August 15, 2026
At Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Attendance: 4,090
RECORDS: FW 7-7-6; CHA 10-7-1
GOALS: FW—Ryan Becher; CHA—Yanis Lelin, Greyson Mercer.
ASSISTS: FW—Javier Armas; CHA– Ropapa Mensah.
SAVES: FW—Bernd Schipmann 0; CHA—Jason Smith 5.
POSSESSION: FW—69.3%; CHA—30.7%.
YELLOW CARDS: FW— Michael Rempel, Javier Armas, Clarence Awoudor, Jeremy Garay, James Musa; CHA—Tobi Adewole, Michael Knapp.
RED CARDS: FW—None; CHA—None.
REFEREE: Richonne Clark.
About Fort Wayne Football Club
Fort Wayne Football Club, founded in 2019, is a professional soccer club playing its first season in USL League One in 2026. The club plays home matches at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, which opened May 2, 2026, and is a soccer-specific venue. In pre-professional USL League Two, Fort Wayne Football Club won division titles in 2023, 2024 and 2025. For more information, visit FortWayneFC.com.
About United Soccer League
Founded in 1986, the United Soccer League (USL) is the largest and fastest-growing soccer organization in the United States, impacting more than 200 communities nationwide. The USL is the first and only organization to offer a comprehensive youth-to-professional pathway for both men and women under one ecosystem. This structure includes four men’s leagues: the newly announced, top-tier professional Division I league, the USL Championship (Division II), USL League One (Division III), and USL League Two (pre-professional). The women’s pathway includes the top-tier USL Super League (Division I), which debuted in 2024, and USL W League, the country’s leading pre-professional women’s league. The USL also oversees USL Academy, a progressive talent development platform, and USL Youth, a premier national youth platform.