PHILADELPHIA - With its offense struggling, the Blast could not afford a letdown on defense.

So when a letdown came during an 11-0 second-quarter run by the Philadelphia KiXX, it was costly to the Blast (2-5), which went on to lose, 17-10, last night before 3,249 at the First Union Spectrum.

"We had a poor second quarter," Blast coach Kevin Healey said, "and we paid the price for it."

Defense helped mask the Blast's offensive shortcomings in most of its previous four losses. But not in the face of an energized Philadelphia attack that put heavy pressure on goalie Brett Phillips, who was making his first start of the season.

"We typically had been doing a pretty good job defensively," Healey said, "but we gave up a lot of points tonight."

The Blast enjoyed one brief but highly productive stretch in the first period, scoring three times in 1:52 to take a 6-2 lead.

P.J. Wakefield netted the Blast's first goal at 2:16, then set up Dewan Bader for the next one less than a minute later.

At 4:08, Gino Di Florio scored from the right wing after taking a floorwide feed from Billy Nelson.

At one point, the Blast held a 9-5 shot advantage, but by the end of the half it was Philadelphia (5-2) holding a 20-12 edge.

Even worse, the KiXX exploded for 11 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 13-6 lead at intermission.

"We got off to that great start," Healey said, "but then they got themselves back into the game."

Joel Shanker's goal at 3:36 of the second tied things up.

Then, with Baltimore's Lance Johnson in the penalty box for holding, Chris Handsor unloaded a three-pointer from the top of the arc to make it 9-6.

Less than two minutes later, KiXX goalie Peter Pappas launched a goal kick the length of the floor that hit the glass beside Phillips and caromed to Pat Morris, who had no trouble tapping in the rebound.

The Blast was blanked again in the third period, although there were solid scoring chances. Denison Cabral was denied at 5:30 when he unloaded from point-blank range only to have Pappas make a diving stop.

With less than two minutes remaining in the period, Danny Santoro was set up in the slot, but even with Phillips out of the play, Santoro missed the target.

"We knew we had to keep them off the board in the second half," Healey said, "which we effectively did. But we just didn't score any goals."

Wakefield ended the drought at 10:28 of the fourth with a tight angle shot into the left side of the net, making it 15-8.

"We've had some games where we were unfortunate," Healey said. "But we lost tonight's game. They beat us."

Blast 6 0 0 4 - 10

Philadelphia 2 11 2 2 - 17

First quarter - 1. Philadelphia, Joe Scigliano (Chris Handsor), 2pts, 1:16; 2. Blast, P.J. Wakefield (Jason Dieter), 2, 2:16; 3. Blast, Dewan Bader (P.J. Wakefield), 2, 3:04; 4. Blast, Gino Di Florio (Billy Nelson), 2, 4:08; Second quarter - 5. Philadelphia, Scigliano (Shawn Boney), 2, :19; 6. Philadelphia, Joel Shanker (Handsor), 2, 3:36; 7. Philadelphia, Handsor (Pat Morris), 3, 7:02; 8. Philadelphia, Pat Morris (Peter Pappas), 2, 8:40; 9. Philadelphia, Morris (Boney), 2, 14:24; Third quarter - 10. Philadelphia, Handsor (Edgar Bartolomeu), 2, 2:29; Fourth quarter - 11. Blast, Wakefield (Paul Wright), 2, 10:28; 12. Philadelphia, Shanker (Handsor), 2, 11:42; 13. Blast, Denison Cabral (Wright), 2, 14:58. Shots on goal - Blast 9-3-10-6-28; Philadelphia 5-15-2-7-29. Power-play goals - Blast 0-1. Philadelphia 1-1. Goalies - Blast, Brett Phillips 3-7-1-2-13; Paul Wright 0-0-0-0-0; Philadelphia Peter Pappas 4-2-7-2-15. A - 3,249.