Storm topples St. Louis

Published on April 10, 2005 under Major Indoor Soccer League 2 (MISL 2)
Chicago Storm News Release


Chicago – The Chicago Storm defeated the St. Louis Steamers 7-2 tonight at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. Storm midfielder Matthew Stewart scored a goal and assisted on two others to increase the "Yellow and Black's" record to 17-19 in the MISL. The Storm moved two games behind the Cleveland Force (18-16) and St. Louis (19-17) for the fourth and final playoff spot with only three regular season games remaining for Chicago. The Storm will return to action on Friday, April 15 when they travel to Cleveland to face the Force at 6:35 p.m. CT.

"We scored some beautiful goals tonight," said Storm Head Coach and GM Frank Klopas. "We did a lot of good things tonight and we were able to finish some good chances. We also made some mental mistakes and we were fortunate that they did not score on them. This was a good win tonight and we have to focus on the next game and just take it one game at a time at this point."

The Chicago Storm lit the scoreboard first at 4:16 of the opening stanza when Stewart came away with a loose ball from Steamers defender Mali Walton along the left wing boards. The El Paso, TX native got away from Walton and fed a pass across the penalty area to Novi Marojevic, who was making a run. Novi blasted a right-footed shot past the diving St. Louis goalkeeper Brett Phillips to give the Storm a 1-0 lead and to give the Indian Head Park native his 25th goal of the season.

The "Yellow and Black" compounded the Steamers' woes at 10:19 of the first quarter when Awadalla Morad flipped a pass to Leo Pernia at the top of the St. Louis arc. The Argentina native one-timed a shot past Phillips for the 2-0 advantage.

At the start of the second quarter, Fred DeGand found Sandre Naumoski racing up the right wing and fed him with a through-ball. Naumoski touched the ball forward twice and ripped a shot from just outside the St. Louis yellow line that found the lower left corner past a diving Phillips for a 3-0 Storm lead. St. Louis cut into the Storm lead at 3-1, when Shaun David tallied an unassisted goal at 10:48 of the second quarter.

The Storm caught the Steamers on a counter attack at 4:58 of the third quarter, when Stewart raced up the right wing on a two-on-one break. Jorge Valle ran up the left side as Stewart dribbled forward and Walton raced back to defend. Stewart placed a pass across to Valle and the Mexico City native one-timed a shot past Phillips for the 4-1 lead.

St. Louis cut the Storm lead in half after player/head coach Daryl Doran knocked in a shot in front of the Chicago net. Farias maneuvered around the Storm's David Schneider and sent in a pass to Doran, who was holding off a Storm defender. Doran got his foot on the pass and put it past Waltman to make it 4-2 Chicago.

The Storm started to pull away when Mark Ughy found the back of the net for his 29th goal of the season. Novi found the Hungarian forward in front of the Steamer's goal and Ughy faked to the right causing St. Louis goalkeeper Bob Graeff to fall to the ground. Ughy then flipped a shot into the open net to make it 5-2 for the Storm.

Chicago added two empty net goals late in the contest by Stewart and Nino DaSilva to ice the game at 7-2. Stewart's tally came when he intercepted a pass at the midfield line and lofted a shot over several St. Louis players and into the center of the net.

The Storm will return to Chicago on Saturday, April 16 when they face the two- time defending MISL champion Baltimore Blast at 3:00 p.m. CT. The game can be heard live on www.chicagostorm.net in English and Univision Radio WRTO 1200 AM in Spanish.

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Major Indoor Soccer League 2 Stories from April 10, 2005


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