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Home  Articles 98/99 Season Slow start in the past
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Written by Norm Cowley
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Monday, 21 December 1998 |
Drillers 13 Blast 7
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The Edmonton Drillers had barely finished sweeping all seven games of their 26-day homestand when Martin Dugas started looking for bigger fish to fry.
"We want the division title and we had to put ourselves in a good position to do that after a slow start," Dugas said after the Drillers downed the Baltimore Blast 13-7 in National Professional Soccer League action on Sunday before 4,538 supporters at Skyreach Centre.
The win -- a club-record seventh in a row --lifted Edmonton, 9- 4, into sole possession of first place in the North Division.
"We've put ourselves in a position to do it and it's not unreasonable to think, at the moment, that we can make a run for the overall title and really make a name for ourselves," Dugas said. "We're establishing great third- and fourth-quarter play, composure and experience. I'm really proud to be a part of that."
Dugas, who scored a team-high 11th goal after a couple of nice passes by Nikki Vignjevic and Domenic Mobilio late in the game, admitted that Edmonton director of soccer operations Joe Petrone had asked the Drillers to win every game before the homestand began.
"At first, we realized it wasn't going to be a small feat," Dugas said. "But, to tell you the truth, the seven games went by very quickly.
"It's been a great experience," he said. "We've had to come from behind, we've had to keep leads, we've had to keep a close lead, we've had teams tie it up late in the games.
"Each day, it's getting quieter and quieter (in the dressing room)," Dugas said. "After our first couple of wins, we were yelling and screaming. But we're getting to feel what it's like to win on a day-in and day-out basis."
Dugas played a big part in the Drillers completing the perfect homestand. The run at home began Nov. 24th.
On Sunday Edmonton got off to a slow start and trailed 2-0 after the first quarter.
Twice Dugas set up linemate Chris Clarke for goals which gave the Drillers a 7-2 lead. Sipho Sibiya had already scored his team- leading third three-point goal early in the second quarter.
Clarke gave credit to his linemates for their assistance.
"It's a lot of work that they do that makes it easy for me," said Clarke, who has scored in each of the last four games and leads the team with 10 two-point goals.
Dugas thought the Drillers were initially hesitant due to nervous excitement about the chance to finish the homestand at 7-0.
"We really wanted to win and then we got our wakeup call," he said.
"It wasn't just going to happen."
The Drillers, who had outscored their opponents 64-27 in the second half of the previous six games, only bested the Blast 6-5 in Sunday's second half. But they played much better defensively after some halftime adjustments.
Still, it looked dicey for a few seconds early in the fourth quarter when Baltimore's Danny Santoro closed the deficit to 7-5. But Mobilio ended the suspense with his eighth goal of the season 11 seconds later.
"That's Domo's strength -- turning and shooting," Dugas said about Mobilio's play along the boards. "He finds the strangest angles. You can't believe they go in at times from those angles but that's his bread-and-butter. That's why he's a specialist. When he's in those corners, you've got to be careful. There's going to be a ball that comes through.
"In the last few games, he's had huge goals for us and it's put the life back in him. We all knew it was going to come. It was just nice to see him have that belief again, too."
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DRILL BITS
GAME STAR -- Edmonton goalkeeper Pat Onstad had to keep the Drillers in the game early, making 10 of his 16 saves in the first half. "Pat had his best game of the year today," said Drillers head coach Ross Ongaro. "He stood on his head, as far as making saves. He was very aggressive. He wanted to win badly and everybody else fed off of that."
DON'T SCORE FIRST -- Baltimore's Tarik Walker opened the scoring 4 1/2 minutes into Sunday's game. That's no big deal for the Drillers, who are now 5-0 when the opponent scores the first goal in NPSL games at Skyreach Centre.
DIVISION LEADERS -- The Drillers will sit all alone atop the North Division standings at least through Christmas. With Sunday's 13-7 victory over the Baltimore Blast, plus Buffalo's 11-8 loss to the St. Louis Ambush, Edmonton, 9-4, is one game ahead of the second- place Blizzard, 8-5.
NEXT UP -- The Drillers' next three games are on the road -- Dec. 29 at Buffalo, Dec. 30 at Detroit and Dec. 31 at Milwaukee. Edmonton, which is 1-3 on the road this season, is back at the Skyreach Centre at 7:05 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 4, against the defending league champion Milwaukee Wave.
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