Comets

With a chance to win the Major Indoor Soccer League's top playoff seeding, and thus the right to bypass the first round and host the championship game March 25, the Blast's assignment Sunday is simple: beat the Missouri Comets at 1st Mariner Arena . It could have been even simpler. A victory at home against the last-place Chicago Riot on March 4 or on the road against the Blast's chief contender, the Milwaukee Wave, last Sunday would have finished the task. But neither happened, and now the Blast faces an almost-certain must-win situation.

Missouri Comets (8-11) at Baltimore Blast (14-5) When: Sunday, 5:05 p.m. Where: 1st Mariner Arena Video: B2TV.com Outlook: First place in the Major Indoor Soccer League is on the line for the Blast in the regular-season finale against the Comets. Cruising to the regular season's finish line, the Blast hit a major roadblock last weekend, jeopardizing the top spot. Baltimore had two opportunities to wrap up first place and home-field advantage in the postseason but suffered an 11-9 overtime loss to last-place Chicago on March 3 — ending an eight-game winning streak — and then fell in Milwaukee, 15-10, last Sunday.

The Blast almost squandered an early 9-0 lead but hung on to beat the Missouri Comets, 15-13, on Saturday night at the Independence Events Center in Independence, Mo. Seven different players scored for the Blast, which improved to 8-3 on the season and remains in a tie with the Milwaukee Wave for first place in the Major Indoor Soccer League. Max Ferdinand scored one goal and assisted another in the first quarter to lead the Blast to an early 5-0 lead, and Pat Healey, Pat Morris and Lucio Gonzaga — who returned to the playing field after serving a two-game suspension — added goals to extend the lead the 9-0. Lucas Rodriguez scored the Comets first goal of the match at 11:48 of the second quarter but Carlos Garcia scored just 10 seconds later to extend Baltimore's lead to 11-2.

Indoor soccer Blast stay perfect on season with 22-6 rout of Comets Pat Healey scored four goals and the Baltimore Blast improved to 5-0 with a 22-6 victory over the host Missouri Comets on Wednesday night. The Comets struck first three minutes into the game when Byron Alvarez knocked in a power-play goal to give Missouri an early 2-0 lead. Healey tied the game at 2 at the 5:17 mark, and the Blast dominated the remaining 54:43 as six different players scored goals and Sagu stopped 23 of the 26 shots he faced.

When Blast midfielder Pat Healey hammered home a chance directly in front of the Missouri Comets' open net with just under ten minutes to play Friday night at 1st Mariner Arena — giving the home team its first lead since the game's opening moments — there was a touch of relief. To that point, the Blast made things difficult for itself with uncharactristicly careless moments on defense early and frustrating times at the other end. With Healey's easy finish and forward Adauto Neto scoring his second goal minutes later to provide the eventual game-winner, the Blast came away with a come-from-behind 13-12 win over Missouri before an announced crowd of 6,236.

Missouri Comets (1-3) at Blast (2-0) When: 7:35 p.m. Saturday Where: 1 s t Mariner Arena Video: B2TV.com Outlook:   Balanced scoring and strong goalkeeping from veteran Sagu have played big parts in the Blast's 2-0 start.  The team has gotten a point from 12 different players — Machel Millwood leading the way with seven points — and Sagu was particularly strong at Omaha where he had a 21-save performance in a 15-10 win on Nov. 28. The expansion Comets have brought in veteran defender Jeff Davis — a longtime member of the Kansas City Attack/Comets in the now-defunct National Professional Soccer League — to help shore up a defense that has yielded an average of 17 points in its first four games.

A Maryland-led mission to capture close-up photos of Comet Hartley 2 climaxed Thursday with razor-sharp images of a whirling, bowling-pin-shaped object spewing jets of carbon dioxide into space. University of Maryland astronomer Jessica Sunshine, assistant principal investigator for NASA's $46 million EPOXI mission, said the 1.2-mile-long comet nucleus seems to be throwing off tons of gas and dust from its rough-looking ends, while accumulating smooth drifts of fine-grained material in lower terrain at the center.

A greenish comet named 103P/Hartley 2 flew within 11 million miles of the Earth on Wednesday, one of the closest approaches by a comet in centuries. But hardly anyone is likely to see it until a Maryland-led NASA mission sends a spacecraft past on Nov. 4. While the comet has been visible in the northern sky for weeks, it has been a difficult target for backyard stargazers, especially in light-polluted suburban skies. "This is probably one of the best comets of the year," said Armen Caroglanian, a member of an employees' astronomy club at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Indoor soccer Missouri Comets to begin play next season as 6th team in MISL Major Indoor Soccer League announced Monday that it granted unanimous approval to the newest MISL team, the Missouri Comets, which will play its home games at the Independence Events Center in Independence, Mo., for the upcoming 2010-11 season. The league now has six member clubs: the Baltimore Blast, La RaZa de Monterrey, Mexico, the Milwaukee Wave, Philadelphia KiXX, Rockford Rampage and the Comets.

The Hereford boys lacrosse team is looking at this week as a valuable trial run for the coming playoffs. So far, so good for the two-time defending Class 3A-2A state champion. In a steady rain Wednesday at Baltimore County rival Catonsville, the No. 9 Bulls started fast and never looked back, coasting to a 16-4 win over the No. 14 Comets. Hereford, which opened the week with a 9-4 win over defending Class 4A-3A champ South River on Monday, improved to 10-1 on the season and 6-0 in Baltimore County.