Road-Weary Storm Fall 10-4 in Baltimore

Published on January 26, 2007 under Major Indoor Soccer League 2 (MISL 2)
Chicago Storm News Release


BALTIMORE, MD. - If not for specialty goals, Friday nights' match up between the Chicago Storm and the defending MISL champion Baltimore Blast could have had a different outcome all together. However a power play goal, and extra man goal and an open netter for the Blast were exactly the difference in Chicago's 10-4 loss to Baltimore. The loss marks only the second loss in Chicago's six game road trip and it comes in the second game the team has played in the last three days.

Chicago came a long way to play the Blast Friday night. Winning a game Wednesday in Stockton California against the Cougars, the Storm flew in to Chicago Thursday evening only to fly out to the east coast to take on the Blats on Friday. Whether it was weariness or a stingy Baltimore defense Chicago could not manage a goal in the first half but managed to yield only a Matt Watson goal late in the second quarter to make the game 2-0 in favor of Baltimore going into the third quarter.

The Storm drew even with the Blast three minutes into the third. Target man Chris Handsor (pictured above) plucked the ball off of a Baltimore defender and sent a laser of a pass across the length of the goal to midfielder Andy Rosenband. Rosenband broke free of his defender and shot the ball into the upper left hand corner of the net, scoring his fourth goal of the season and busting the Baltimore shutout.

The Blast countered only a few minutes later. The Storm's Brazilian defender Fabinho received a blue card for holding and on the ensuing power play Baltimore defender P.J. Wakefield scored on a rebound chance, beating starting Storm goalkeeper Jim Larkin to put the Blast up once again.

Chicago retaliated with a goal of their own at the eight minute mark of the third. Newly acquired midfielder John Ball rushed down the right hand side towards the Baltimore net before dropping a pass to the center of the goalkeeper area. Target man Chris Handsor received the pass and beat Blast ‘keeper Sagu low to tie the game at four a piece. With his goal and assist Handsor moved into a three way tie with forward Awadalla Morad and midfielder Matthew Stewart for the team lead in points with 30. The assist by Ball was his third in two games.

Unfortunately the two goals were all that Storm could muster up. Baltimore's stingy defense killed two power plays and on offense P.J. Wakefield struck again. Defender Chris Brisson fouled a Blast player but because no Storm player had touched the ball, play was allowed to continue until Chicago made contact and controlled the ball. Baltimore pulled their goalie and put on the extra attacker and it worked. Midfielder Robbie Aristodemo let loose a shot that Larkin saved but the ball rebounded to Wakefield who scored his second of the night.

The Blast added an Aristodemo goal and an open net goal by Lee Tschantret when Chicago pulled Larkin and made John Ball the sixth attacker to make the score 10-4. Chicago falls back down to .500 with a record of 8-8 and travels to Philadelphia to take on the KiXX tomorrow night. Baltimore moves up to 7-8 and hosts the Detroit Ignition tomorrow.

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Major Indoor Soccer League 2 Stories from January 26, 2007


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