BALTIMORE—The Chicago Soul (1-2) returned to Baltimore in hopes of seeking redemption after last Saturday’s loss, but had no such luck as they dropped 17-9 to the Blast (2-0) on Friday night at the 1st Mariner Arena. The Soul, missing its scoring power in Chile Farias, got off to a slower start than last week as Baltimore’s Lucio Gonzaga blasted the ball in the net to allow the Blast to jump out to an early 2-0 lead. Carlos Muñoz tied it up for the Soul at the 5:30 mark, but Pat Healey followed it up minutes later with a goal of his own to give Baltimore a 4-2 lead.Soul captain Matthew Stewart responded with a three-point goal, giving the Soul its first and only lead of the night at 5-4. Blast captain Mike Lookingland helped his squad quickly restore the lead with a goal to put Baltimore back on top 6-5 by the end of the first quarter.The Blast opened up the second quarter with a goal by Marco Mangione, extending Baltimore’s lead to 8-5. The Soul appeared to catch a break when Blast’s Adriano Dos Santos got called for a tripping penalty, allowing Christian Meza to take advantage of Chicago’s power play and strike the ball past Baltimore goalkeeper Troy Hernandez to cut the Blast’s lead to 8-7.Adauto Neto and Machel Milwood followed up with back-to-back goals for the Blast to pull away from the Soul and give their side a 12-7 advantage. Tony Donatelli added a three-pointer with 2.6 seconds remaining in the half to make it 15-7 as the teams headed to the locker rooms.After a scoreless third quarter, Healey scored his second goal of the night on a power play to give the Blast a 17-7 lead. Stewart attempted to shift the momentum back in the Soul’s favor, squeezing in a goal at 11:09 to cut the Blast lead to 17-9, but the Soul ran out of time and picked up its second loss of the season.

“I think our biggest struggle was in the first half,” said Soul Head Coach Manny Rojas. “We didn’t play well together as a team. We fixed it in the second half and played even with the Blast the rest of the way. Unfortunately, the fact that they beat us in the first half cost us the game.If we play our next game the same way we played in the second half of this game, we should have a good chance.”

The Soul will now travel to Rochester to take on the Lancers Saturday night at the Blue Cross Arena at 6:00 p.m. CT. The game can be viewed live online at MISLnation.com.