It took just one golden goal to put the Baltimore Blast back in the Major Indoor Soccer League Championship series.
Despite splitting the two-game MISL semifinals with the Milwaukee Wave, Baltimore won on Machel Millwood?s golden goal with 1:54 in the second quarter of the sudden death tie-breaker with the Wave on Sunday night.
The Blast will host the first game of the MISL Championship at 7:35 p.m. against the St. Louis Steamers on Friday, April 28. Game Two will be at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 30 in St. Louis. The Blast are even in the 2005-2006 season series with the Steamers at 3-3.
Baltimore won the first game of the two-game series, 10-4, at home on April 22. Milwaukee hosted the second game of the semifinals and won the game in regulation time, 10-8. The Wave victory forced the tiebreaker round, and allowed the Blast to advance to the championship after losing the second game.
Aduato Neto started the game out fast for Baltimore, and scored the first two goals. Neto had four goals in the game and one assist. Robbie Aristodemo, Joel Bailey, player/coach Danny Kelly, and Millwood all had one goal.
After the quick start for the Blast, Milwaukee jumped in the driver?s seat. The Wave outscored Baltimore, 6-1, through the rest of the first half and took the lead to 9-3 in the third quarter. Milwaukee had a pair of hat tricks from Greg Howes and Todd Dusosky. Howes also had three assists while Dusosky had one.
Baltimore mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter and scored the final four goals of the game. Even with the momentum swing in the fourth quarter, the Blast could not overcome the deficit.
The Blast opened the semifinals with a lopsided 10-4 win over the Wave at home on Saturday. Baltimore jumped ahead of the Wave early, going up 5-0 before Milwaukee finally got on the board late in the third quarter.
Robbie Aristodemo and Davis Bascome led the Blast with two goals each. Aristodemo, Bascome, P.J. Wakefield and Kelly had three points in the game for the Blast.
BLAST-OFF FOR CHAMPIONSHIP
» In the Blast?s six games with St. Louis, the Steamers have outscored Baltimore, 46-43.
» Baltimore advanced to the championship under player/coach Danny Kelly. Former Blast head coach Tim Wittman was suspended indefinitely after a post-game altercation with an official in California on March 18.
» The Blast returns to the MISL Championship after not making the playoffs in the 2004-2005 season. Baltimore won the MISL crown in the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 seasons, defeating the Milwaukee Wave in both championship series.
