HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The game was only a few minutes old when the Spirit began to form the impression it wasn't going to be a good night.
Of course, it seldom is in this town.
But injuries made the prospect of victory even gloomier. No. 1 goalie Cris Vaccaro was out with a strained back, second-leading scorer Jon Parry was limited by a tender ankle to an assist and leading scorer Kevin Sloan suffered a possible broken toe early in the first quarter and sat out the rest of the game.
Result? The Spirit lost to the Harrisburg Heat, 21-10, last night before 4,663 at the State Farm Show Arena.
It was the Spirit's eighth loss in nine games here in its two-plus National Professional Soccer League seasons. The Spirit's only win was Nov. 12, 1993, on Rob Ukrop's overtime goal.
In absorbing its seventh straight loss to Harrisburg, including two in last season's playoffs, the Spirit was peppered by Tom Bialek's four goals. The Heat (5-4) leads the series, 12-5.
"We stunk," said Spirit coach Dave MacWilliams. "No one had a good game, including myself."
The rout included a Harrisburg goal inadvertently kicked in by the Spirit's Jason Dieter. Near the end, when Baltimore pulled goalie Joe Mallia and used a sixth attacker, Harrisburg goalie Doug Petras scored on a length-of-the-field heave.
By losing, the Spirit (7-4) missed an opportunity to move within a half-game of the idle Cleveland Crunch (7-1), the American Division leader.
The Spirit clearly missed Sloan. In his first 10 games, the former Oakland Mills High star had 52 points, placing him third in the NPSL. He is on pace to score about 200 points, which would obliterate Paul Wright's club record of 146. Sloan's career high was 90 last season with the Dayton Dynamo.
"It's the second toe on my right foot," said Sloan. "The worst we're looking at is two weeks."
The Spirit jumped to a 2-0 lead on Brad Smith's goal, but Harrisburg's Bill Becher scored the first of his two first-quarter goals and Bialek kicked in another for a 4-2 lead.
The second quarter was all Harrisburg. The Spirit was shutout, and Bialek scored his second and third goals for a 9-4 halftime edge.
In the Baltimore goal, Joe Mallia again started in place of Vaccaro, who has missed six straight games with a pulled hamstring. He started Friday's game against Cleveland, but left after halftime with a strained back.
Last night, Mallia returned to this town where he began his NPSL career. He spent his first two seasons with the Heat and had a 29-22 record.
NOTES: MacWilliams will undergo more tests, probably this week, as doctors attempt to discover why he occasionally feels as if he's going to pass out. "I'm OK, but still not 100 percent," he said. . . . Parry, the Spirit's No. 2 scorer, played despite aggravating the ankle injury that caused him to miss three games early this month. . . . Leading Harrisburg scorer David Bascome played despite a sprained ankle. . . . In its first 10 games, the Spirit scored 13 three-point goals, wiping out the club single-season record of 11 in 1992-93.
Baltimore .. 4 ..0 ..2 ..4 ..-- ..10
Harrisburg ..6 ..3 ..5 ..7 ..-- ..21