The season's final home game for the Chattanooga Football Club turned out to be a 90-minute victory lap for the team and its ebullient group of supporters.
The drums and cowbells were thumping and clanging amid one group of fans Saturday night at Finley Stadium. Elsewhere, the notorious vuvuzelas - the plastic horns that forever will be associated with the 2010 World Cup - were buzzing without interruption.
There was much to drum, clank and toot about as Chattanooga FC clinched an undefeated season with a 4-0 win over Rocket City United in front of an announced crowd of 5,117, the largest ever for an NPSL game.
The second-year club, the Southeast Conference champions, finished the regular season 6-0-2 and will play in the league Final Four at the end of the month.
"I can't believe there are 5,000 fans here," said Thomas Clark, who scored the game's final goal. "This city, it's incredible. They outdo themselves every single week."
Standing on the sideline as the game wound down, general manager Sean McDaniel wore a big smile as the crowd roared behind him. He said Saturday was exactly what he and his fellow board members were hoping for 18 months ago when they decided to create a team.
"This was another great day for CFC," he said. "This is the culmination of when we sat down with the white board and said, 'Where do we want to be at the end of this season?'
"We are where we had dreamed of being. We really are."
Irvin Espinal scored on a strike from the right side less than four minutes into the game and then sprinted down the field to honor injured teammate Chris Ochieng. Espinal ran directly to Ochieng, the team's leading scorer who suffered a dislocated ankle Thursday, and reached up into the stands to give him a high-five.
"This whole game was for Chris," Espinal said. "He's been a great player for the team and we miss him."
In the 29th minute, Luis Salazar put CFC up 2-0 with a goal from near the top of the box. Chattanooga FC appeared to be cruising into halftime until the 44th minute, when goalkeeper Richard Masters went down after a collision in the box and left the game.
Masters said he tweaked his right knee, but he is expected to be fine for Saturday's game in Washington, D.C. The club will take on D.C. United's Super-20 team at RFK Stadium in a matchup of two squads sponsored by Volkswagen.
After that, CFC heads to Madison, Ala., for the Final Four, which begins July 29.
"These next two weeks, they're going to be fun," Clark said. "They're going to be incredible."