KiXX split back-to-back weekend

February 26, 2007 - Major Indoor Soccer League 2 (MISL 2)
Philadelphia KiXX News Release


Philadelphia, PA, February 26, 2007 - The Philadelphia KiXX (13-8) split two games over the past weekend but remain in first place with just nine games remaining. At the Wachovia Spectrum on February 24, Philadelphia defeated the Milwaukee Wave 24-14 on the heels of another John Barry Nusum hat trick. The club then traveled to Detroit on February 25 but fell to the Ignition 22-12. Three time Defender-of-the-Year Genoni Martinez recorded 10-points in the weekend set. On March 2, the KiXX will head down I-95 seeking revenge on the Baltimore Blast, who swept Philly in a home-and-home series February 2-3. Game time is slated for 7:35pm ET. The club will then return home Sunday, March 4 to host the California Cougars at 4:05pm ET. The first 2,500 fans in attendance under the age of 14 will receive a Pat Morris Bobble Head doll.

This Week's Itinerary:

Monday, February 26, Travel back from Detroit

Tuesday, February 27, Off Day

Wednesday, February 28, Training, Tri-State Sports, 10:00am to 12:00pm

Thursday, March 1, Training, Tri-State Sports, 10:00am to 12:00pm

Friday, March 2, at Baltimore, 7:35pm ET

Saturday, March 3, Off Day

Sunday, March 4, vs. California, 4:05pm ET

*all times are Eastern and subject to change

Injury Report:

Player Injury Status

Don D'Ambra Hamstring Probable

KiXX vs. Blast

2006-07 Series: 1-2 (home 1-1, away 0-1) Overall: 39-32 (home 23-13, away 16-19)

This Friday's meeting will be the fourth time this season that the Blast and KiXX face off with Baltimore winning two of three ... Baltimore has won five straight games and find themselves just one game behind the KiXX, while Philadelphia dropped their last decision and lead Detroit in the MISL standing by one half-game ... Machel Millwood has become a one of the top scorers in the MISL in just his third year in the League; Millwood leads the Blast with 25 goals and 58 points, good for second and fourth in the MISL respectively ... Denison Cabral has contributed 16 goals and leads the club with 12 assists ... Goalkeeper Sagu sports a 10-6 record and a League best 9.94 PAA ... the defending champions are led by former Blast stand-out Danny Kelly, who retired from professional play at the end of the 2005-06 season to coach the team full time ... Kelly played 14 seasons in the MISL, collecting three MISL Titles.

Game Two: California visits the Wachovia Spectrum for the final time this season on Sunday, March 4 ... the KiXX have won four of five games against the Cougars this season, most recently in California on February 17 ... the game was decided on a Tony Donatelli overtime goal, after the KiXX scored five goals in the final three minute s to tie the game ... the duo of player/coach Don D'Ambra and Donatelli have combined for 34 points in five games versus Cali this season ... Vincente Figueroa leads the Cougars with 48 points this season, good for sixth in the MISL ... Enrique Tovar has contributed a team high 19 goals while recently retired Bernie Lilavois still leads the team with 19 assists ... Lilavois has taken reigns of the team full time as head coach ... Dominik Jakubek's troubles in net (2-11, 16.71 PAA) led California to sign Bayard Elfvin, a fourth round pick in the 2006 Dispersal Draft ... the Ohio native dropped his first decision against the KiXX on February 17.

MISL Welcomes the Orlando Sharks: The name of the eighth Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) team is the Orlando Sharks, in accordance with an announcement made recently by team investor/operator Sham Maharaj, president of Buena Vista Corporation, and MISL Commissioner Steve Ryan ... "We've spent many hours soliciting feedback from the community to ensure we captured Central Florida's input into the naming process," explained Rich Bradley, vice president of Buena Vista Sports & Entertainment and team president ... "We offered a selection of geographic references, historical nicknames, mythical creatures and native species in the polling; ultimately the most popular name was originally a write-in that was the clear winner in the final round of voting."... the result of the poll, which attracted over 3,500 responses last August ... in addition to the name and logo announcement, Bradley outlined upcoming events, including the selection of the team's first-ever draft pick during the MISL Collegiate Amateur Draft on March 8, local team try-outs, dance team auditions and community partnerships, including afternoon training sessions already in progress at local schools ... "After having actively participated in our community for a full year prior to our professional team taking the field for the first time, the Sharks are already demonstrating their commitment to be engaged as true community partners, impacting Central Florida by investing in today's youth to help create tomorrow's future leaders, both academically and through athletics," said Bradley ... following the completion of the 2006-07 MISL season, a dispersal draft of unprotected current MISL players will be held to help fill the rosters of the Orlando and Newark, N.J. teams, as well as for any other new expansion clubs scheduled to play during the 2007-08 season ... later this spring, the team will announce a series of local try-outs to be held over the summer throughout nine counties in Central Florida, as well as unveil the team's head coach, uniforms and mascot.

Full Strength: With nine games remaining in the season, the KiXX roster is finally getting healthy ... big man Shawn Boney, who missed five of the team's last seven games with a lower back strain, scored in his first game back on February 24 against Milwaukee ... only three players on the entire roster have appeared in all 21 regular season games, including rookie Tony Donatelli, midfielder Ptah Myers, and keeper Peter Pappas ... player/coach Don D'Ambra has missed two games this season with a hamstring pull that he has been fighting all season while midfielder David Castellanos also missed his first game of the season recently, against the Cougars on February 17 ... other players who have missed significant time include Pat Morris, who missed three games with a concussion, John Nusum missed three games with a quad pull, Steve Wacker has missed nine games with a hyper-extended knee, and Casey Barton has missed seven games with a hip strain ... despite 36 man games lost to injury, the KiXX still maintain a half-game lead in the MISL standings as the club works on getting healthy for the stretch run.

Last Week's Outing: DET 22, PHI 12 (2/25/07): The Philadelphia KiXX (13-8) fell to the Detroit Ignition (13-9) in the second game of a back-to-back weekend, 22-12 in front of a sellout crowd in the Motor City ... Philly's defense allowed a season high 22 points following a 24-14 victory over the Milwaukee Wave on February 24 ... three-time Defender-of-the-Year Genoni Martinez recorded five points in each game of the weekend set, extending his point streak to six games ... forward Mike Apple provided the only scoring in the first period, connecting on a pass from teammate Mauricio Salles at 13:10, to give the hosting Ignition a 2-0 advantage ... Shawn Boney evened the score, 2-2, with a back-heel unassisted goal that snuck past Sanaldo and into the back of the net at 3:01 of the second stanza ... Droo Callahan gave the Ignition a halftime lead when he buried his third goal of the season with just 51 seconds remaining in the first half ... rookie Worteh Sampson was credited with his 11th goal of the season on a Philadelphia mishap in their own end, giving Detroit a four-point lead ... Genoni Martinez made up for the error, pulling the KiXX to within two on his 11th goal of the season, unassisted ...after an intentional handball from keeper Peter Pappas, Ptah Myers' eighth of the season, shorthanded, tied the game at six apiece ... just 44 seconds later, Detroit's Carlos Farias scored on a three-pointer on the power-play, followed by a Josh Rife two-pointer to quickly put the Ignition up 11-6 ... Farias has recorded 15-points in five games against Philadelphia this season ... Callahan's second of the night spread Detroit's lead to seven just over two minutes into the fourth quarter ... Jon Greenfield and Miodgrag Djerisilo scored consecutive goals less than a minute apart to put Detroit up 11, 17-6 ... Pat Morris' second three-point goal in as many games brought the KiXX to within eight at 10:11 of the fourth ... the goal put Morris over the 300 point mark for his career ... after a Martinez tripping penalty, Farias capitalized on his second three-point power-play goal of the night, putting the game out of reach for Philly, 20-9 ... Callahan would go on to complete the hat trick, and MISL leading scorer Jamar Beasley was credited with his third assist of the night ... Martinez would add a three-point power-play goal of his own to complete the scoring, 22-12 Ignition ... Philadelphia was without the services of player/coach and KiXX leading scorer Don D'Ambra (hamstring) and defender Drew Kopp, who was serving an automatic one-game suspension after receiving a red card on February 24 ... Genoni Martinez's first goal was the 100th two-point goal of his career ... the twelve-year veteran needs just one goal for the 250th of his career ... KiXX forward John Barry Nusum was held pointless after recording two hat tricks in two games.

Recently: PHI 24, MIL 14 (2/24/07): The Philadelphia KiXX (13-7) broke the 20-point barrier for the second time this season defeating the Milwaukee Wave (11-11) by a score of 24-14 ... John Barry Nusum recorded his second hat trick in as many games and added an assist for seven-points in the KiXX third straight win ... Edgar Bartolomeu and Pat Morris contributed two goals each in front of 6,875 at the Wachovia Spectrum ... Nusum began the scoring on his 13th goal of the season just over three minutes into the contest ... Anthony Maher put Milwaukee on the board a minute later with a three-point goal ... Genoni Martinez set the KiXX back on top 4-3 with his 10th of the season ... he three-time Defender-of-the-Year would add three assists for five points by the end of the match ... Maher buried his second goal of the season followed by two Chad Dombrowski goals putting Milwaukee ahead 10-4 ... Pat Morris and Casey Barton scored back-to-back goals to end the first quarter 10-9 Wave ... the KiXX took the lead on goals by two defenders with Drew Kopp's third of the season followed by Casey Barton's second goal to put Philadelphia on top 13-10 heading into halftime ... rookie Marcio Leite scored the lone goal of the third quarter to pull Milwaukee to within one point, 13-12 ... Philadelphia, the best penalty killing unit in the MISL, fought off three of four penalties to protect the lead heading into the fourth quarter ... Nusum would go on to complete his hat trick in the final stanza ... two-time MISL MVP Dino Delevski recorded the 300th goal of his illustrious career to put the KiXX up 18-12 ... Maher would complete his own hat trick for Milwaukee but it wasn't enough as Edgar Bartolomeu scored two empty net three-point goals against the Wave's sixth attacker.



Major Indoor Soccer League 2 Stories from February 26, 2007


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central