Detroit Ignition blasts Baltimore, 19-11

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - For the second time in eight days, the Detroit Ignition got the best of the Baltimore Blast. Fueled by a four-goal, nine-point second quarter, the Ignition grounded the Blast for a 19-11 victory Saturday at 1st Mariner Arena.

“It’s just a team effort,” said Detroit forward Worteh Sampson, who scored two goals. “They’re a tough team, especially at home. But we came out as a team today and pretty much played as a team. There’s not individual on our team.”

The Ignition beat the Blast, 11-4, in Detroit on Dec. 1, and Baltimore (5-3) has lost its third consecutive game since starting the season 5-0.

Denison Cabral led Baltimore with two goals, including a one-timer with 8:58 left in the fourth quarter to bring the Blast within three points. But Sampson and Doug Rice scored to close out the Ignition’s third win in four games.

Detroit (5-2) took a 9-0 lead into halftime and held Baltimore scoreless until Lucio Gonzaga broke through with a goal at the beginning of the third quarter to end a 31-minute, 15-second scoring drought.

“I’m embarrassed right now. I’m embarrassed,” Baltimore coach Danny Kelly said. “The people who come to see our games pay their hard-earned money to come and see a team put it on the floor, and we didn’t do that tonight. For the first 30 minutes, we didn’t show up. We get paid to play a game, and we didn’t show up. And that’s unacceptable.”

Playing without last season’s Most Valuable Player, Jamal Beasley, and Mike Apple, who scored twice against the Blast in the teams’ first meeting, Detroit didn’t show any signs struggle from the offensive end. Five Ignition players combined to score eight goals in Baltimore’s worst loss of the season.

“We worked hard this week on getting everyone involved on the attack,” Ignition coach Bob Lilley said. “We lost two pretty good scores, so we knew we were going to have to do it collectively.”

Sampson ended nearly 20 minutes of scoreless soccer in the second quarter. He took a pass Vahid Assadpour in front of the net, spun low to the ground and sent a shot past Blast goalkeeper Sagu.

Jonathan Greenfield took a pass at the top of the arc and drove a 3-pointer past Sagu with 5:13 to play in the second quarter, and Hewerton Moreira deposited a pass from Sampson into the net 85 seconds later for a 7-0 lead.

Droo Callahan scored the first of his two goals with 1:26 left in the first half for a 9-0 lead.

“It’s tough going back to the locker room knowing we didn’t do anything,” Cabral said.

Baltimore answered Detroit’s nine-point second quarter with one of its own in the third.

Carlos Garcia followed Gonzaga’s score with his fourth goal of the season. Posted in the left corner, Machel Millwood drove a centering pass off the boards to Garcia’s feet, and the fifth-year forward beat Detroit keeper Danny Waltman for the score.

“That’s the way to start a first quarter,” Cabral said. “That’s not a way to start the third quarter.”

Callahan’s 3-pointer with 9:01 remaining in the third put Detroit ahead, 12-4, and Gonzaga answered with a 53-foot, right-side 3-point shot with 4:27 left – his third goal in three games this season.

Cabral took advantage of an Ignition holding penalty on a shootout goal with 3:53 left in the third to bring cut Detroit’s lead to 12-9.

“Fortunately, we got that lead because we really struggled in the second half to contain that lead,” Lilley said. “They obviously put a lot of pressure on us.”

Abraham Francois beat Sagu with three minutes left in the third quarter to bolster Detroit’s lead to 14-9. Francois took a short pass from Moreira at the left of the penalty box and laced a shot off Sagu’s finger tips for the goal.

Millwood found Cabral open at the top of the penalty box for a one-timer to bring Baltimore within a goal, 14-11, with 8:58 remaining.

With 5:58 to play, Rice swung a pass to Sampson, who connected on his second goal to put the Ignition up, 16-11.

Baltimore pulled Sagu for an extra attacker with 2:55 to go in the fourth, and Detroit capitalized 11 seconds later for a 19-11 lead. Aristodemo, the sixth man, dribbled the ball out the midfield stripe, but his pass was stolen. Rice took the loose ball and drove it 110 feet for a 3-point goal to put the game out of reach for Baltimore.

“When you’re not focused on what your job is and what the strengths of other players are, you’re probably not going to have your job for too long,” Kelly said. “We try to give them as much information as we can, and what I saw out there tonight was not good enough.”

NOTES: Baltimore forward Matt Watson left the game in the third quarter after suffering a broken toe.

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