The Baltimore Bays couldn't overcome a first-half lapse, so instead of celebrating a third straight victory, they were pondering a 7-6 loss to the Orlando Lions last night at Du Burns Arena.
"We just weren't clicking in the first half," Bays coach Kevin Healey said after the U.S. Interregional Soccer League game. "We were dribbling too much and [Orlando] was doing a nice job of getting five men back behind us very quickly."
The Bays (2-2) came out flat in the first half and the visitors mad them pay for their casual behavior. The Lions took a 1-0 lead with 6:01 left in the first quarter when forward Geir Sperre drilled a hooking liner just out of the reach of Bays goalkeeper Dave Tenney and into the upper right corner of the net.
A personal foul against Baltimore gave the Lions a free kick. Orlando had three other free kicks on Baltimore violations (for the ball hitting structures out of plays). The Lions' fourth straight free kick found the net with 3:27 left in the first, giving them a 2-0 advantage.
Things went from bad to worse for Baltimore in the second quarter as Tenney collided with Orlando midfielder Alex Acosta and had to be replaced by Brian Hartlove.
Hartlove, who entered the game tied for third in goals-against average at 5.36, was in the game less than a minute when Orlando's Greg Brick beat him on a fast break. After yielding that goal, Hartlove came to life with five second-quarter saves.
The Bays spotted Orlando four goals and put 16 shots on goabefore midfielder Chris Simon ended Baltimore's scoring drought a feed from Joe Layfield with 4:33 remaining in the third.
"They have a good team and they played well tonight and w played one of the worse games I've ever seen us play and I'm not sure why," said Mark Mettrick, who finished the night with one goal and one assist. "Collectively, we played poorly as a team. You can't play one half and expect to win. That first half was terrible."
Simon's second goal pulled Baltimore back within three and another by Mettrick cut Orlando's lead to two. The Lions scored their fifth unassisted goal with 7.6 seconds left in the third and led 6-3 heading into the final quarter.
Two goals by Eric Spalt and one by Harte on a feed from Bill Ronson helped cut Orlando's lead to one with 3:08 left.
The Bays went with six attackmen in the waning minutes but save by Ronson was the only highlight for Baltimore down the stretch.
"We were just forcing things early on and they did a nice job ogetting back on defense," said Healey, whose team will play host the Richmond Kickers on Saturday in Canton. "I'm proud of the way my guys played the last quarter and a half. They kept coming and almost tied it up."
Orlando .. ..2 ..1 ..3 ..1 ..-- ..7
Baltimore ...0 ..0 ..3 ..3 ..-- ..6