STORM DIGS HOLE IT CAN'T ESCAPE

BALTIMORE—Giuliano Celenza and Aduato Neto each scored twice, and Sagu made 20 saves in goal, as the Baltimore Blast (7-4) put away the Chicago Storm (5-8) 9-5 Saturday in front of 6,478 at 1st Mariner Arena.

The Blast surged to a 4-0 lead in the first 5:30, and never trailed. Veteran Danny Kelly scored the game-winner with 12 seconds left in the third quarter. Awadalla Morad had two goals for the Storm.

Neto took advantage of an early tripping penalty on Chicago’s Mark Ughy to give Baltimore a 1-0 lead at 1:06. Celenza continued the onslaught with his league-leading 18th goal of the season at 2:53, and Joel Bailey made the score 3-0 at 4:03. Celenza scored again, off Ibrahim Kante’s assist, at 5:30.

The 4-0 score held until the closing minutes of the half, when Morad slipped Chicago’s first goal past Sagu.

David Bascome added another goal for the Blast at 0:29 of the third quarter. The Storm closed the gap with rapid-fire goals by Anthony Maher (9:18) and Morad (10:19), before Kelly came through with the clincher.

Ughy opened the fourth-quarter scoring at 2:57, before the Blast killed any thoughts of a comeback with a string of goals by Robbie Aristodemo (8:19), Neto (11:23) and Lee Tschantret (12:02). The Storm pulled ‘keeper Danny Waltman for sixth attacker Fabinho with 4:50 left, and got one final goal from the ploy, by Semir Mesanovich with seven seconds left on the clock.

Waltman finished with eight saves for the Storm, and Fabinho stopped three of five.