Rochester looks to play the spoiler role in Baltimore Saturday night.
By Rochester Lancers
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Doug Miller returns to play for the Lancers. The Living Legend of Rochester Soccer was re-signed before the roster freeze. Miller will be the only pro American soccer player to play in four different decades.
Miller started his career in 1991 with the Baltimore Blast, then became a household name in Rochester with the Rhinos in 1996, and in the same year with the Buffalo Blizzard. Miller joined the Indoor Lancers in 2011 and soon became the league MVP. He returned to play for the Outdoor Lancers in the NPSL in 2017 and made an appearance in 2018 and 2019 with the Outdoor club. In 2019, Miller returned again to play for the M2 Indoor Lancers.
And now in 2020, with the MASL Indoor Lancers, we hope to see Miller play in one of our final five games this season.
“I was a huge fan of Doug Miller in the early 90’s with Baltimore and Cleveland,” said Salvatore SoccerSam Fantauzzo, “He helped changed Rochester soccer in 1996 with the Rhinos. He has devoted his life to help develop youth soccer in our area, and has been a loyal Lancers player and now coach. I hope to see him play one game this season.”
The Lancers look to play the spoiler’s role when they visit the Baltimore Blast in a Major Arena Soccer League game at SECU Arena on Saturday night.
The Lancers (0-19), who have been eliminated from the playoff race, will try to make life difficult for the fifth-place Blast (13-8), which is battling the fourth-place Harrisburg Heat (12-7) for the fourth and final Eastern Division berth.
The 6:05 p.m. match can be viewed on MASL.TV.
The Lancers are coming off their finest weekend of the season. On Saturday night, the Lancers made the Blast sweat, rallying from a three-goal deficit in the fourth quarter before Baltimore won in overtime, 6-5. On Sunday, Rochester battled Utica City FC closely in the first half before the hosts pulled away to a 7-2 victory.
Anthony Rozzano is the team scoring leader (9 goals, 8 assists, 17 points). Jeremy Ortiz and Michael Cunningham have tallied 7 goals apiece while Rafa Godoi has added 6. Rookies Diego Mayanga and Matt D’Amico, a former standout at Pittsford Mendon High School and SUNY Geneseo, have contributed 7 assists each.
Brian Wilkin, the Hilton High School and Nazareth College graduate, was outstanding last weekend and is expected to start in goal.
Vini Dantas is the Blast’s main man up front (34 goals, 14 assists, 48 assists), followed by Tony Donatelli (20 goals, 20 assists), Jonatas Melo (13 goals, 21 assists) and Juan Pereira (18 goals), who scored the winning goal 55 seconds into sudden-death overtime last week.
The Lancers play only once this week before coming home to the Dome Arena in Henrietta to host their final two contests. They welcome the Florida Tropics on Friday, March 6 and then the Kansas City Comets on Saturday, March 7. Both games kick off at 7 p.m.