Eastern Conference crown within reach after triumph

A return home proved to be the cure for the Blast on Friday night.

With a balanced effort on offense and tidy defense, they ended a two-game slide with a 9-6 win over the Milwaukee Wave before an announced crowd of 3,242 at Towson University’s SECU Arena.

The Blast, who have already clinched the Major Arena Soccer League’s Eastern Division title, improved to 16-4 and are close to clinching the Eastern Conference crown after beating the Central Divisionleading Wave, which fell to 15-5. One win will do it and the Blast’s first chance comes Saturday when they close out their home regular-season schedule against the Florida Tropics with game time set for 6:05 p.m. The Blast are now 10-0 on home turf this season.

“Coming in here tonight, big win,” Blast coach Danny Kelly said. “Milwaukee is a great team with a great tradition and we’re battling for supremacy in the league and we want that home-field advantage.

“We talked about one shift at a time, battling for each other and doing what we do. Credit the guys. They worked their butts off tonight and we had some great goals and found a way to win.”

Eight players scored goals for the home team — Jonatas Melo leading the way with two — while four others had assists. The defense mostly contained the Wave’s dynamic one-two punch of Ian Bennett and former Blast player Max Ferdinand. The pair went into the game with a combined 96 points, including 57 goals, and were held to a combined two goals and two assists with half the production coming in the closing minutes.

“Tonight, we had a lot of players scoring and working hard,” Melo said. “That’s the Blast — everybody giving their best and that’s why we’ve been so successful over the years.”