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December 18, 2005
STORM DROPS THIRD STRAIGHT
Falls to St. Louis 7-4
Kathryn L. Knapp
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St. Louis scored twice while Danny Waltman was serving penalties.
Linda Cuttone/Sports Vue Images |
CHICAGO – It wasn’t the Storm’s night. Chicago started off slow, caught back up, took the lead, but in the end fell to St. Louis 7-4.
“St. Louis was the team that wanted to win more tonight,” Chicago Storm Head Coach Frank Klopas said. “That’s disappointing to me. There are a lot of things I wasn’t very happy with.”
The Steamers started the scoring, scoring a goal in each quarter for a 2-0 lead in the second quarter. Randy Soderman netted the first one in the first quarter, while Joe Reiniger tallied a goal in the second quarter.
After the second St. Louis goal, the Storm woke up. Brian Alavarez was running toward goal. He sent the ball to Jorge Valle on the right side of the net. Valle sent it back into the center of goal to Alvarez. He flicked the ball past Steamer’s goalkeeper Brett Phillips.
Before the first half was over, Valle notched his own goal. He tapped one into the net with 2:24 remaining on the clock. The two teams went into the locker room tied at 2-2.
The Storm came out in the third quarter and took charge. Chicago captain Novi knocked in a penalty kick after the Steamers were called for a handball in the box. Chicago had its first lead of the day 3-2.
Things soon took a turn for the worst. Chicago goalkeeper Danny Waltman challenged a Steamers player for the ball. The players collided. The referee blew his whistle and handed Waltman a blue card for an elbow.
“If you’re a goalie in the box, that’s your ball,” Klopas said. “You’ve got an advantage. The goalkeeper has every right to challenge for the ball. Contact is going to be made. I don’t see how they made that call.”
Fabinho took over in goal, while Waltman took a seat in the box. Fabinho made a couple of saves including a penalty kick, before St. Louis’ Sandre Naumoski picked up his own rebound and snuck one into the net.
With the score at 3-3, St. Louis turned up the pressure. Reiniger tallied his second goal of the net, sending an unassisted long ball past Waltman for a 4-3 lead. Naumoski added another goal, giving the team a 5-3 lead.
And before St. Louis’ scoring streak was over, Waltman took another trip to the penalty box for a handball outside the circle. He returned with just over eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Storm then sent in Novi as its sixth attacker. St. Louis struck again. Shaun David sent one in for the Steamer’s increasing the lead to 6-3. With just over one minute remaining in the game, Chicago’s Mark Ughy got the Storm on the board, sending a bouncing ball into the net for a 6-4 score.
Seconds later, Reiniger collected a hat trick, sending the final goal into the net for a 7-4 St. Louis win.
“We’ve been practicing hard,” Klopas said. “We had a good week of practice. On game night, you have to come and perform. Practice players, we don’t need those. I thought we’d come out sharp tonight. We didn’t.”
Chicago dropped its third straight game and now sits with a 2-5 record.
“It seems we can’t score a goal,” Klopas said. “We create chances. We just can’t put the ball into the net. Tonight we gave up so many bad goals. Some things are not working out right now. I don’t like losing. I like good soccer to be played. Right now we’re at the point, we’ve got to do something. You don’t want to fall too far behind.”
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