ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The Rochester :Lancers welcomed the Baltimore Blast to the Blue Cross Arena on Saturday afternoon. The Lancers were unable to overcome a slow start falling 26 to 9 in front of 5102 fans at the Blue Cross Arena. The Blast outscored the Lancers 12-3 in the first quarter and never looked back. The loss snapped the Lancers’ two game winning streak and drops the team’s record to 2-3 on the season.
The visiting Blast were able to get on the scoreboard first when Shaun David’s shot from just inside the three point arc eluded Lancers goalkeeper Patrick Hannigan just 97 seconds into the game. Baltimore extended their early lead with goals from Max Ferdinand and Machel Millwood to put the Blast up 6-0 with a little over seven minutes to play in the first quarter. The Lancers pushed up too far leading to a two on one for the Blast that saw Aduato Neto finishing off a pass from David to make it 8-0 Blast. On Section V Soccer Day, Aquinas grad Kyle Manscuk scored his first goal as a Lancer from three point range to pull the home team within five. But, Neto answered back for Baltimore just ten seconds later and Millwood scored his second of the quarter to extend the Blast lead to nine points late in the first. A late Lancers break yielded nothing and the first quarter came to an end with the Baltimore Blast holding a 12-3 advantage.
The early part of the second quarter saw the Lancers endure an injury scare when forward Mauricio Salles crumbled to the turf holding his left knee. Salles would re-enter the match after testing the knee out during a Baltimore timeout. Baltimore opened the scoring in the quarter when Matt Watson punished a Hannigan turnover. After a Baltimore free kick deep in the Lancers’ end of the field, Pat Healey roofed a rebound of a Scott Buete shot. The goal pushed the Blast lead to a baker’s dozen. With a little less than five and half minutes left in the second quarter, the Lancers were able to take advantage of some pretty passing by Andrew Hoxie, Doug Miller, and Jeremy Ortiz on the break with Ortiz finishing the play for the Lancers’ second goal of the match. Manscuk just missed a chance for his second of the game in the last minute of the half. At the half, the Baltimore Blast held a 16-5 lead over the Lancers. Baltimore was clinical in their finishing as they had eight goals out of thirteen shots on goal in the half.
The Blast were able to score the first goal of the half again when Matt Watson set up Carlos Garcia for the one time goal from just off to Hannigan’s right. The Lancers answered back when Ortiz fed a nice outlet pass to Hoxie. Baltimore goalkeeper Sagu came off his line to stop the initial Hoxie shot, but the Lancers forward calmly slotted home the rebound to pull the Lancers to within eleven points. The Blast had the quick answer as nineteen seconds later, Mike Deasel scored for the Blast after a dangerous free kick chance wasn’t cleared away by the Lancers. Hoxie later scored his second of the match when his shot deflected off of Healey and past Sagu to make it 20-9 Blast after three quarters.
COURTESY ROCHESTER LANCERS
