Buffalo stifles Blast in OT

Blizzard stops slide of 15 road losses, 16-14

Baltimore slips to 8-2

Soccer

Sooner or later, the Buffalo Blizzard was going to win a road game.

Last night, at the Baltimore Arena, against the team with the best record in the National Professional Soccer League, it did.

Buffalo prevailed in overtime, 16-14, on a shot by Jim Hesch at 11:41.

The victory ended a 15-game road losing streak that dated to last season and brought a broad smile to coach Paul Kitson's face. His team is now 4-6 on the season.

"It wasn't sooner or later," Kitson said. "We came to win tonight. Sooner or later could be 15 games down the road. We've been improving every game. We lost a tough one in overtime at Harrisburg last week. Now, we've won a tough one in overtime."

For the Blast, the loss meant slipping to 8-2. Baltimore is now tied with the Toronto Thunderhawks for the league's best mark and will face Toronto for the first time next weekend.

The Blast still has a one-game lead over the Harrisburg Heat in the American Conference.

The crowd of 4,766 seemed stunned by the final outcome. Its team had been up 14-10 in the fourth quarter, Tarik Walker, the Blast's second-leading scorer, had his first hat trick of the season, and Baltimore hadn't lost a home game this season.

But the handwriting was on the carpet from the first period, when the Blizzard began capitalizing on every Baltimore mistake.

"We gave them a couple goals, and they scored a couple more on free kicks," said Blast goalie Scott Hileman, who made 11 saves on 21 shots. "I didn't do my job very well. I'll take responsibility for that and deal with it. But there are 30 more games to play, plus the playoffs."

One game on a cold December night is just that for the Blast. But for Buffalo, it was a big one after six road losses this season following nine straight last season.

"We came in planning to cut down on mental mistakes," Kitson said. "We did that, and when they gave us a goal, we took it."

It's the holiday season, so some might say it's better to give than to receive. But Blast coach Kevin Healey wasn't happy with the size of the gift.

"We made some defensive errors, and they played very hard," Healey said. "Give them credit. We were up four points in the fourth, and they came back. They scored 16 points, which is a lot for us to give up."

The game was ugly from start to finish.

Buffalo's Matt Caution scored his team's first goal on a free kick, and Hesch scored the winning goal when the Blast suffered a defensive breakdown that left their goalie defenseless.

In between, Hileman made two bad clearing passes, one of which resulted in a three-point play by Matt Tanzini, who scored when the ball hit his leg and rolled untouched into the net.

But the Blast rallied, with goals by Lee Tschantret and Danny Kelly keeping them in the game early and scores by Denison Cabral and Walker keeping them in it through the middle periods.

Cabral scored two goals and Walker three, including back-to-back goals that tied the game, 8-8, at the half and then gave the Blast the lead 1:31 into the third period.

Walker also scored 1:27 into the fourth period for a 14-10 Blast lead, but that was the last goal of the night for Baltimore.

It was Buffalo's offense that was rolling, as it struck for three straight scores by Randy Pikuzinski, Travis Roy and Hesch.

"We have to learn from this," Healy said. "We didn't do enough to win. At times, we could have kept the ball better and played better in the first half. And, at 14-10, we didn't do the little things necessary to winning."

At the opposite end of the floor, Buffalo goalie Bryan Finnerty, who had 14 saves on 35 shots, found a way to deny the Blast in the closing minutes of regulation and again in overtime.

"And then the kid [Hesch] who takes the winning shot was starting just his third game for us," Kitson said. "I think he's one of the most talented youngsters [I] have seen in this game in a long time."