Cleveland Crunch Roll Past Ft. Wayne, Remain Undefeated at Home and Advance to 6-0

Photo Credit: Kim Karbon Photography

The Cleveland Crunch delivered another high-energy performance at the Wolstein Center on Sunday night, defeating Ft. Wayne Summit City United 13-8 and advancing to 6-0.

The night opened with a special moment as Cleveland Browns legend Bob Golic served as the honorary guest and flipped the ceremonial coin to start the match. From there, the Crunch wasted no time setting the tone.

Rookie Jamon McCort made an immediate impact in his first game with the Crunch, opening the scoring at 12:04 of the first quarter with his first goal of the night, assisted by Rafael Davalos. Chris Cvecko followed and found the back of the net at 9:32, finishing a play set up by Omar Najjar. McCort struck again at 8:43.

The scoring surge continued as Admir Suljevic added a goal with an assist from Carter Richardson, followed by Matthew DeCapua converting at 1:57, once again assisted by Najjar. Ft. Wayne managed to break through late in the quarter with Imanol Hernandez scoring off a feed from Fabian Hauer, but Cleveland closed the first quarter firmly in control.

The Crunch picked right back up in the second quarter. Jannis Schmidt scored at 12:52 with an assist from McCort, before Ft. Wayne answered with a goal from Richard Faleye. Cleveland quickly regained momentum as Captain Dave Jordan scored at 7:20, followed by Gabriel Pewu converting at 6:30 off another Najjar assist. Ft. Wayne briefly responded through Eddy Yousak, but the Crunch defense tightened, and Davalos capped the half with a goal at 2:25, assisted by Pewu. Cleveland headed into halftime with a commanding 9-3 lead.

Defense dominated much of the third quarter, but Najjar opened the second half scoring at 7:54, assisted by Brenden Swann. Schmidt added his second goal at 5:43, and moments later McCort completed a memorable hat trick at 5:24, finishing a play set up by Jordan. Ft. Wayne found the net once more through Faleye, but Pewu answered quickly with a goal assisted by DeCapua to end the third quarter with Cleveland firmly in control.

Ft. Wayne opened the fourth quarter with a goal from Yousak at 13:04, followed by a successful penalty kick from Hauer. The Crunch defense then took over for much of the final stretch before Ft. Wayne added late goals from Hernandez and Joao Gustavo. Despite the late push, Cleveland’s early dominance proved decisive as the final horn sounded with a 13-8 Crunch victory.

McCort earned the MetroHealth Man of the Match honors.

The Cleveland Crunch are back in action this weekend as they travel to Toronto to take on the Canadian Crusaders who are also 6-0.