Over & back

by Steve De Rose
Published on May 12, 2001 under National Professional Soccer League (NPSL)

by Steve De Rose

As suspected, Gino DiFlorio won the Most Valuable Player award. The "major announcement" regarding the League and the city of Harrisburg was: The League is conducting its summer meeting in Harrisburg on 22-24 July.

League Commissioner Steve Ryan also attended a meeting with Farm Show personnel concerning the Heat's future at the facility. The Heat's lease expires this summer. The franchise is seeking another multi-year contract. The meeting also had representatives from Harrisburg Mayor Stephen R. Reed's and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge's offices.

The 2001 N. P. S. L. Finals The Milwaukee Wave are the 2000-2001 N.P.S.L. champions. The Wave overcame a six-nil first-quarter deficit to win game three by 10-8. The championship-winning-goal was scored by Todd Dusosky at the 6:01 mark of the fourth quarter. On that goal, Dusosky was on the right wing of a two-on-one break with Playoff Most Valuable Player Joe Reiniger. Reiniger's pass was slightly behind Dusosky, but he settled, astutely waited for a hastening Kixx defender to overrun him, and then toe-poked the ball past Kixx GK Peter Pappas.

In the history of the N.P.S.L. since 1989, the Wave became only the third team to win the championship on the road:

1991 Chicago Power [@ Dayton]
1995 Saint Louis Ambush [@ Harrisburg]
2001 Milwaukee Wave [@ Philadelphia]
Amazingly, all of these were sweeps.

The Kix's first-quarter lead came from goals by ex-Wave (and ex-Chicago Stingers) player Don D'Ambra, Cesidio Colasanté, and Hormoz Tabrizi. The Wave got its first goal forty seconds into the second quarter on a restart, as Joe Reiniger found a moving Brian Loftin in the box. He deflected the ball into the net, high to Pappas' right.

The Wave scored the only six points of the third quarter. Kixx player/coach Omid Namazi felt that his squad did not remain true to its game plan in the second half. The Kixx got an equalizing goal by Matt Brooks 1:20 into the fourth quarter, but the Wave got the afore-mentioned goal from Dusosky later on. The Kixx went sixth attacker with 2:23 to play, and launched some good salvos toward the Wave goal, but most of them were blocked by Wave defenders. Glenn Carbonara stuffed what looked like an especially good chance off the foot of D'Ambra, just to the left of center from 19 feet out, with fifteen seconds remaining.

* * *

Here is the complete scoreline from Game 3:

KIXX Don D'Ambra (Peter Pappas) 7:29 1st Qtr. (2-0)
KIXX Cesidio Colasanté (Shawn Boney) 10:39 1st Qtr. (4-0)
KIXX Hormoz Tabrizi (Pat Morris) 13:03 1st Qtr. (6-0)
WAVE Brian Loftin (Joe Reiniger) [restart goal] :40 2nd Qtr. (6-2)
WAVE Joe Reiniger (Todd Dusosky) :26 3rd Qtr. (6-4)
WAVE Greg Howes (Matt Tirschman) 4:07 3rd Qtr. (6-6)
WAVE Michael King (Sipho Sibiya) 14:42 3rd Qtr. (6-8)
KIXX Matt Brooks (Peter Pappas) 1:20 4th Qtr. (8-8)
WAVE Todd Dusosky (Joe Reiniger) 6:01 4th Qtr. (8-10)

The Finals went as such: 2001 N.P.S.L. Finals | Series "G"
Milwaukee WAVE v. Philadelphia KIXX Day Date Game Result
Wed. 2 May Milwaukee v. Philadelphia 16-12
Sat. 5 May Milwaukee v. Philadelphia 9-8
Fri. 11 May Philadelphia v. Milwaukee 8-10

There will be a celebration of the Wave's championship on Monday evening at 7:00 pm [CT] on the east side of the Bradley Center.

Steve De Rose, a former member of the now defunct SportsBytes, joined OurSports Central as our primary NPSL correspondent. Steve, a longtime viewer of the indoor game, is a founding member of the On-Line Soccer Writers' Cooperative, a repository for electronic journalists whose stories initially appear on World-Wide Web sites.

National Professional Soccer League Stories from May 12, 2001

• Wave wins second straight NPSL title - OSC Original by NPSL Press Release
• Over & back - OSC Original by Steve De Rose

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.