STORM SWEEP KIXX, BACK IN PLAYOFF RACE

By: Dan Parks
Photos: Richie Pawlak

If the Chicago Storm will go anywhere this season, they can easily look back at this past weekend as the turning point in their second Major Indoor Soccer League campaign. Needing a weekend sweep of the home-and-home series with the Philadelphia Kixx in order to get back in the playoff picture, the Chicago Storm came from behind each night to do just that capping off the two days by coming back from 4-0 down to win 8-6 in front of 1,627 fans at UIC Pavilion on Sunday. Now they hold a game-and-a-half lead over the Kixx for the fourth and final MISL playoff spot.

“I think we’re playing well, and this series with Philadelphia was huge,” said Storm head coach Frank Klopas. “We played well against Milwaukee, and we should have won the last game against Baltimore. With Philly it’s going to be us or them at the end (for the playoffs).”

After coming back from 3-1 down on Saturday night to win 4-3 in Philadelphia, the Storm made the trek to Chicago for the second leg of their weekend series with the Kixx. Philadelphia built a 4-0 lead this time, but a five-goal barrage in the final quarter propelled the Storm to victory.

“I thought we played well in the first half even though we were down 4-0,” said Klopas. “At no point did I feel like we were out of it. We gave up stupid goals. We’ve played in situations like this before so we just kept playing. We had a lot of energy in the second half.”

Mark Ughy’s seventh goal of the season that came just nine seconds after Philadelphia tied the score at 6 apiece with 1:56 remaining proved to be the game winner. Fans were getting prepared for overtime when shortly after the kickoff Matthew Stewart found Ughy in front of the net, where the Hungarian striker banged in a shot past a stunned Kixx goalie Stuart Dobson. Lazo Alavanja added an insurance marker exactly a minute later putting home a rebound from a Stewart (goal, 2 assists) shot on goal.

Down by two entering the final stanza, the Storm started their final flurry very early. After a re-start, Semir Mesanovic sent a pass from “Novi” Marojevic curling into the upper right corner of the net to draw the Storm within one. Mesanovic (2 goals) hit it so hard and curved it so viciously that the ball was still spinning in the net.

Ptah Myers drew a holding penalty that resulted in a shootout for the Storm at 4:01 into the quarter. Novi calmly took two dribbles and drilled a shot into the goal for his second on the night and 11th of the season to tie the score.

Anthony Maher gave the Storm their first lead at 6-5 with 3:15 remaining in regulation. Stewart passed the ball across to defender Gaston Pernia, who sent a drive toward the goal. That’s where Maher redirected the ball from an odd angle toward the goalmouth. Dobson couldn’t handle the deflection, and the ball squirted into the goal.

Philadelphia re-tied the game 1:19 later as the Kixx used the 6th attacker to provide extra offensive pressure. John Barry Nusum scored off a pass from former Storm player Andy Guastaferro (2 goals, assist) forcing the Storm to push harder to complete the comeback.

The game began with Philadelphia’s 6-foot, 7-inch Shawn Boney being the opening goal scorer and ended with the big man turning into a goon. The nine-year indoor soccer veteran was left all alone to the left of goal and powered a shot that Storm goalkeeper Jeff Richey got a hand on into the net 3:15 into the game. Richey, much like the team, had a shaky start but recovered to make 13 saves to improve his record to 2-0 playing in relief of MISL goalkeeper of the week Danny Waltman. Richey even recorded an assist in the game.

Right after the Storm went up 7-6, Boney got into an altercation with Maher after the Storm forward tried to steal the ball away from him. Boney then grabbed Maher’s jersey and put Maher, who is seven inches shorter than Boney, into a headlock. Storm teammate Awadalla Morad came to Maher’s aid and tried to get Boney to release his grip. Boney then closed his fist and hacked his arm at Maher’s arm to get Maher to let go, too. Both Boney and Maher received yellow cards to the surprise of most, especially Klopas.

“Boney grabbed Anthony from the throat, and you cannot do that,” said Klopas. “The refs have got to be on top of that, and he should have gotten a red card. They need to keep things under control. He did the same thing with Denny (Clanton) and nothing happened. You say something and you get a fine. I want to see what kind of fine (the referees) get.”

Despite that ugly ending, the game was an indoor soccer classic that resulted in the home team giving its crowd a reason to come back and see them again. It was the Storm’s largest attendance all season, a number on which the team hopes to improve. The players on the youth teams honored prior to the game were really into the game and their intensity and noise level increased with every Storm goal.

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