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IGNITION CAPTURE REGULAR-SEASON TITLE WITH
22-21 WIN OVER
BALTIMORE
April 5, 2008
Baltimore,
MD
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The Detroit Ignition (22-8) won the Major Indoor Soccer League
regular-season title with a 22-21 victory over the Baltimore Blast
(19-11) tonight at 1st Mariner Arena. The victory gives
the Ignition the top seed going into the 2008 MISL Championship Series,
which kicks off next weekend.
Detroit
will move directly into the semifinal round of the playoffs, with Game 2
being held on Sunday, April 20 at Compuware Arena.
Forward Denison Cabral
got the scoring started early for Baltimore, putting a three-point shot past
Danny Waltman just 23 seconds into the match. At 8:11 of the
first, Mike Apple put Detroit
on the board with a two-point goal. Midfielder Ricardinho was
credited with the assist on the score, giving the Brazil native his 150th
career point. Ignition Captain Droo Callahan scored another
two-pointer for
Detroit at
10:39, but Cabral notched a two-point shot just 30 seconds later to put
the Blast up 5-4. With just five seconds left in the first, Baltimore forward Machel
Millwood buried an unassisted two-point score to give the Blast a three
point lead.
Just over halfway into
the second quarter, Blast forward Matt Watson added two more points for
the home team with an unassisted score. Cabral tallied his third
goal of the night at 12:13 off a dish from forward Michael Todd to give
the Blast a 7-point lead. Exactly one minute later, Ricardinho
netted a two-point tally with an assist from Ze Roberto. At 13:55,
Jamar Beasley cut the Blast’s lead to 3 with a two-pointer off an assist
from Apple.
The Ignition kept the
momentum going into the second half, as midfielder Ze Roberto put Detroit within one with a
two-point score off a give from Josh Rife. At 6:44 of the third,
midfielder Lucio ended the Ignition’s six-point scoring run with a
two-point restart goal. Just over four minutes later,
defender Jonathan Greenfield cut the deficit back to one, booting a
two-point shot past Baltimore keeper Sagu.
At 12:38, Birmingham native Ryan Mack
gave
Detroit their
second lead of the night with a two-point shot off a dish from Beasley.
Forward Adauto Neto quickly responded for Baltimore, putting the
Blast back up 15-14 with a goal at 13:06 of the third.
Two minutes into the
fourth quarter, Millwood tallied his second goal of the match - a
two-point score with an assist from netminder Sagu. With just
over 10 minutes to play, Ignition rookie Zach Wilkes scored his first
goal of the season off a pass from Ricardinho to bring Detroit within one again. At 6:34, Neto
launched a pass towards Millwood who headed it past Waltman to give the
Blast a three-point cushion. Just 32 seconds later, Nate Craft cut the
Blast’s lead back to one with a two-point score off an assist from
Hewerton. At 11:01 of the fourth, Beasley scored his second
two-pointer of the night to give the Ignition a 20-19 lead, but Mike
Lookingland put the Blast back on top with a two-point goal that
prompted the Ignition to bring in Callahan as a sixth attacker.
With less than minutes
to play, Ricardinho netted Detroit’s final goal of the night off a pass
from Hewerton to put the Ignition on top of a 22-21 lead.
The Blast had one final shot with less than a second left to play, but
Callahan made the block in front of the Ignition’s open net to give Detroit the regular-season championship.
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