|
Blast Off To Fast Start In 2012
By Andrew Primrose
On Friday night, the Blast rung in the New Year with a new player and a new result. While recently signed midfielder Ricardinho was held without a point in his home debut, his Blast teammates put up 21 points during their first home victory against the Syracuse Silver Knights in three tries.
With a 21-6 dominating win, Baltimore improved to 9-3 and earned its second home win of the season before a crowd of 4,864 at 1st Mariner Arena. The Blast scoring was driven by a hat trick from veteran forward Adauto Neto, but it was fellow forward Machel Millwood that got the Blast off to a fast start, scoring two goals during the first quarter. The score was 4-0 when rookie Stephen DeRoux scored his first MISL three-point goal at the 9:53 mark of the first quarter, a bomb past a screened Silver Knight goalie that found the right corner of the Syracuse goal.
Andriy Budnyy scored for the Silver Knights to cut the Blast lead to 7-2, but that was as close as the Silver Knights would get for the rest of the night. DeRoux scored his second goal of the game and Max Ferdinand, Carlos Garcia and Neto added goals to give the Blast a 15-2 lead at the halftime break.
Cory Elenio scored the first goal of the second half to make it 15-4, but Neto answered the next two goals to earn the hat trick and extend the Blast lead to 19-4. Ferdinand recorded his second goal of the night late during the third quarter to make it 21-4. Silver Knight defender Jon Gruenewald scored the only fourth-quarter points with an unassisted goal, at 1:58, on what appeared to be an uncalled hand ball.
For the Blast, their 21-point outburst was their second highest of the season, behind their 23 points during a Nov. 26 a win against the Rochester Lancers.
Friday night was also a chance for Blast fans to get their first view of veteran midfielder Ricardinho, who was signed late in December to replace Matt Watson, who was released in order to allow him to move to the Vancover Whitecaps of the MLS.
Ricardinho, a nine-year veteran from Sao Paulo, Brazil, began his professional indoor soccer career with the Dallas Sidekicks and made stops with the Milwaukee Wave, California Cougars, Detroit Ignition, Philadelphia KiXX and Omaha Vipers before joining the Blast. A 2009 All-NISL First-Team selection, he won an MISL Championship in 2005 with the Milwaukee Wave and advanced to the championship game in 2007 with the Ignition. He has also played for Brazil's national indoor soccer team and spent two seasons with Aviacion of Lima, Peru (1999-2000) and one season with Palmeiras of Brazil.
The Blast can even their home record with a quick return back to action during a Saturday-night matchup against the Rochester Lancers. The game will be played at 7:30 p.m. at the 1st Mariner Arena and is the team's annual Hall of Fame Night, during which former players Dan Counce and Rusty Troy will be inducted into the club's Hall of Fame.
Posted Jan. 7, 2012 |
|
| |
| |
Comments:
Post a Comment:
|
|
 |
|
|
