2017–18 Baltimore Blast season

The 2017–18 Baltimore Blast season is the twenty-sixth season of the Baltimore Blast professional indoor soccer club. The Blast, an Eastern Division team in the Major Arena Soccer League, play their home games at SECU Arena in Towson, Maryland.^[3]

The team is led by owner Edwin F. Hale, Sr. and head coach Danny Kelly. The Blast entered the season as defending champions as they defeated the Sonora Suns in the Ron Newman Cup finals in April 2017 for the second consecutive season.

Following an 6-5 victory on February 10 over the Milwaukee Wave, Baltimore clinched a playoff berth in the Eastern Division for the 2018 Ron Newman Cup playoffs.^[4] The Blast then clinched the regular-season Eastern Division championship after a 8-7 overtime win over the Florida Tropics on February 24.^[5] The Blast finished the regular season 17-5 and defeated Syracuse, Milwaukee and Monterrey in the postseason, successfully defending their title en route to the team's tenth championship (including one won by the original Blast franchise). William Vanzela received the MASL Final MVP.

History

Launched in July 1992 as the Baltimore Spirit, an expansion team in the second National Professional Soccer League for the 1992–93 season, the team replaced the original Baltimore Blast which folded earlier in 1992 when the first Major Indoor Soccer League shut down.^[6] Ed Hale, an owner of the original Blast, bought the Spirit in July 1998 and changed the name to Baltimore Blast.^[7] In 2001, the team was a founding member of the second MISL. When that league shut down in 2008, they co-founded the National Indoor Soccer League which, one season later, became the third MISL.

After the 2013-14 season, Baltimore was one of three teams that left the MISL, leading to the league's collapse.^[8] Along with five other former MISL teams, the Blast joined the teams of the Professional Arena Soccer League, which was then rebranded as the Major Arena Soccer League.^[9][10] The MASL Eastern Division for the 2017-18 season remains unchanged from the previous season, consisting of the defending MASL Ron Newman Cup Champion Baltimore Blast, former MISL club Syracuse Silver Knights, former PASL club Harrisburg Heat, and the Florida Tropics.^[11]

Off-field moves

The Blast announced in August 2017 that they would move from the Royal Farms Arena to the SECU Arena on the campus of Towson University, beginning in the 2017-2018 MASL season.^[3] The move will be the first time the Blast franchise will play home games in an arena other than the Royal Farms Arena.

Schedule

  Win   Loss ^{[12] [13]}

Personnel

2017–18 roster

Active Players

• As of March 6, 2018^[14]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 0 GK William Vanzela 4 FW Andrew Hoxie 8 FW Lucas Roque 9 DF Pat Healey 11 MF Tony Donatelli 12 DF Adriano Dos Santos 13 DF Jereme Raley 16 MF Nicholas Tait 17 FW Jamie Thomas 19 DF Marco Nascimento

No. Position Player 20 DF Mike Deasel 21 FW Jon Orlando 22 FW Juan Pereira 23 MF Jonatas Melo 25 FW Daniel Peruzzi 26 DF Elton de Oliveria 28 FW Vini Dantas 78 FW Nelson Santana 82 DF Jonathan Greenfield 99 GK Joey Kapinos

Inactive Players

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 7 MF Ricky Greensfelder

Statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Tony Donatelli	20	22	21	43
2	Vini Dantas	17	20	15	35
3	Andrew Hoxie	20	16	9	25
4	Jonatas Melo	22	11	13	24
5	Adriano Dos Santos	20	7	14	21

Last updated on March 6, 2018. Source:^[16]

External links

• Baltimore Blast official website
• Baltimore Blast at The Baltimore Sun

References