Machel Millwood tallied three points on one goal and one assist in tonight's win against the Rochester Lancers. (Photo Courtesy of the Baltimore Blast)
When they arrived tonight, one of our friends from the Rochester Lancers came up to me and informed me I would be writing headlines about a Rochester win. Ha. Ha. Clearly, he’s never read my headlines.
And clearly, he underestimated the Blast. Sure, the Lancers put up a good fight, but the Blast came away with n 8-7 win over Rochester before 6,473 at 1st Mariner Arena.
Less than a minute into the game, Rochester defender Brayton Knapp earned two minutes in the box for holding, but the Lancers were able to kill the power play. A few minutes later, Blast defender Scott Buete earned a blue card of his own for holding, but the Lancers were unable to capitalize as well. But aside from a few great saves on Sagu’s part, that was it for the action in the first quarter. Defense prevailed on both sides, and neither team scored.
Finally the Blast broke the ice with one of Danny Kelly’s nifty free kick schemes. Ricardinho tapped the ball to Max Ferdinand on his left, who faked like he was going to shoot, but instead tapped it forward to Carlos Garcia. Garcia then found the back of the net almost three minutes into the second quarter. With only 21 seconds left in the half, the Blast got a power play opportunity when Rochester had too many men on the field. Only 18 seconds later, captain Mike Lookingland took advantage of the situation, getting the power play goal on a pass from Adauto Neto.
The second half got off to a quicker start with Rochester’s Ljubomir Kocic scoring in 10 seconds. It looked like the Blast had a goal a few minutes later, but Ferdinand found the back of the net at the same time Garcia was called for holding, and the goal was negated. Machel Millwood made up for it a minute later, pounding an unassisted goal right down the middle. The Blast got another power play opportunity three minutes later when Rochester’s Elliot Fauske, whose hairstyle rivals only that of Danny Kelly, received a blue card for holding. However, this time the Blast were unable to score, and the third quarter came to an end.
Almost seven minutes into the fourth quarter, Rochester defender Jacob Schindler found the back of the let on a pass from Grady Renfrow to narrow the margin to two points. But when Lancer goalkeeper Patrick Hannigan jumped up to block a shot, Millwood headed the ball back to Mike Deasel, and the rookie scored to widen the margin once more. Rochester answered though, this time with a three-pointer authored by former Blast player Chile Farias (mmm…chili), unassisted. With jut under two minutes left in the game, the Lancers decided being one point down wasn’t good enough, and put in veteran Doug Miller as the sixth attacker. Compounding matters, Sagu earned himself a five-minute penalty (even though there were only 30 seconds left in the game). But ain’t no thang — the Blast played tough defense and came away with the victory.
“We had a great win,” Kelly said. “I thought we played very well on both sides of the ball. Offensively we were patient. We created chances. Their keeper played well, a credit to them for playing well. We did a great job defensively, kept them within one goal for most of the game, and I thought Sagu played really well.”
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So the cheerleaders were wearing something that looked to me like purple camouflage tops. I get the camo, since it was Army appreciation night, but purple? Do we not know that the Ravens lost last week? I totally get that a Blast cheerleader’s dream is probably to become a Ravens cheerleader, but let’s get with the times and the right team, yeah? Unless those tops were ordered prior to the Ravens losing. If that’s the case, way to jinx it, ladies. Lee Evans, Billy Cundiff and I applaud you.
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Hey, I just want to throw something out there. If you ever find yourself in a press box, like say, the one at 1st Mariner Arena, there’s no cheering. No cheering in the press box. Just like there’s no crying in baseball and no you-know-what in the champagne room. Got it? None. Hypothetically speaking, of course. In case you find yourself here. Just saying. NONE. Zero.
