2002 Jun 29

Indiana Blast  2 - 3  Seattle Sounders
Indianapolis, IN

Goals:
3' IND - Vaughn (Tenoff)
13' SEA - Gregor
58' SEA - Ching (O'Brien)
77' SEA - Sawatzky (Ching)
90' IND - Costa (PK)

Indiana: Mark Spears; Mark Allen, Vorgen Less, Chris Leitch, Jeff Samples; Dustin Ottesen, Jeremy Sweet (Ezenwa Ihekononye 91'), Gino DeGuardi (Peter Baah 67'), Godfrey Tenoff; Jeff Dresser (Rodrigo Costa 74'), Myron Vaughn (Ricky Camarena 59').

Seattle: Preston Burpo; Zach Scott, Ryan Edwards, Craig Waibel, Scott Jenkins; Chad Brown (Greg Foisie 83'), Andrew Gregor, Leighton O'Brien, Jason Boyce (Jason Farrell 68'); Darren Sawatzky, Brian Ching (Kyle Smith 88').

Match report from the Sounders:

The Seattle Sounders Professional Soccer Club defeated the Indiana Blast 3-2 in Indianapolis Saturday night. The win runs the Sounders record to 11-0-2 (W-D-L).

The Blast (3-0-10) jumped on the board first in the 3rd minute. Chris Leitch intercepted a pass and dribbled into the box, flicked a pass over to Godfrey Tenoff, whose shot was deflected in by Myron Vaughn.

The Sounders offense, quieted by the Portland Timbers last Sunday night, was awakened in the 13th minute. Andrew Gregor scored on a free kick from 22 yards out to knot the score at 1-1.

Forward Brian Ching, who netted two goals against the Blast on June 15th, scored his 6th of the season in the 58th minute to give the Sounders a one-goal lead. He received a Leighton O'Brien pass, and after a scramble inside the 18-yard box, blasted a shot past Blast keeper Mark Spears.

Darren Sawatzky, the league's leading scorer, rounded out the Sounders scoring by rocketing home his eighth goal of the season. Sawatzky worked a beautiful give and go with Ching in the 77th minute and beat Spears to give the Sounders the 3-1 lead.

The Sounders took their lead into the 90th minute when a questionable call led to a Rodrigo Costa penalty kick goal.

"It's nice to get another win," said head coach Brian Schmetzer. "Now we just have to get ready to face the Riverhawks (Cincinnati) and Thunder (Minnesota)."

By scoring three or more goals the Sounders again receive the maximum five points for the victory. They now have 52 points and continue to lap the field in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division.

The Sounders have scored 37 goals thus far this season. They only scored 40 goals last season.

After the game, the Sounders boarded a bus for the hour and a half trip to Cincinnati, Ohio. They face the Cincinnati Riverhawks tomorrow night at 7 pm EST. The Riverhawks handed the Sounders their first loss of the 2002 season back on June 14th. The three game road trip continues on July 4th when the Sounders visit the Minnesota Thunder.

Sounder defender Kieran Barton, recently hired as the assistant women's soccer coach at Gonzaga University, did not make the road trip with the Sounders. Craig Waibel, a former Sounder and current member of the Los Angeles Galaxy, was loaned to the Sounders for the road trip. He replaced Barton in the starting lineup. Barton will return to the team when they return home later this month.

Statistics:
        Indiana  Seattle
Shots:     13        6
Saves:      3        5
Corners:    3        2
Fouls:     19       12
Offsides:   3        0

Misconduct:
Seattle cautions: Scott, Edwards, Waibel, Gregor.
Indiana cautions: Ihekononye, Baah.

Referee:
Attendance: 1,743