Saturday, February 28, 2009

Knights take on the Scorpions
Seven different players scored for The Las Vegas Knights on Saturday night. Luis Suarez, Manny Kouhaiz, Marco Pina, Ryan Purtell, Itzik Rapoport, Rene Abrego, and Derik van Gessel all found the back of the net. Manny and Itzik both had three goals a piece leading the Knights to an 11 to 8 win. Scoring started quickly and for awhile it seemed that the Knights were going to pull away from the Sacramento squad. Sacramento battled hard and at half-time the Knights had scored only 5 goals and with Zeke Sanchez in goal allowed the Scorpions 3 goals. Phil Webb came on in the second half and proved just as strong.

The Sacramento Scorpions, who traveled 9 hours to come to Las Vegas, proved to be a good challenge. They were led by coach Eric Harvey, who incidentally is one of the older players in this league.

This game served as a warm-up for the Las Vegas squad as they look forward to the PASL National Championships this week. The Championships will take place in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Sports Park this year. The games will start on Friday, March 6, 2009 at 9am and they will finish on Saturday March 7, 2009.

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Saturday, February 21, 2009

San Diego Fusion Southwest Division Champions for 4th Time in 5 Years
San Diego Fusion top Las Vegas Knights 8-5

2/21/09 - San Diego, CA Josh Barton and Colin Jennings led the San Diego Fusion to their fourth PASL- Premier Southwest Division title in five years.

The Fusion have won the PASL-Premier Southwest Division Title in the 04/05, 06/07, 07/08 and 08/09 seasons. The Fusion will be heading to the 2009 PASL Nationals Championship in Las Vegas on March 6-7.

The Fusion had gone up 2-1, but Knights, scored four unanswered goals. The Fusion went in at the half losing 5-4 with the Knights looking for an upset. "It was the first time of the season that a team had really taken advantage of some of our errors," stated Managing Director Alex Monnar.

The Fusion came out in the second half with a new outlook and that was the difference in the game when they scored four in the second half to win the game 8-5. Monnar stated, "This was one of our off games but we perform well enough in the second half to chalk up a win and clinch a title for the fourth time. I’m so proud of this team and we are now in a position to win another national title with a little luck."

Next up, the San Diego Fusion take on the Arizona Heat on Saturday February 21st at 8:00PM in Phoenix and then are back in action again Saturday February 28th at 7;00pm with the San Diego Crew at Tobey Wells YMCA.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Friday, February 6, 2009

Knights lose to San Diego by narrow margin


Thu, Feb 5, 2009 (6:46 p.m.)
The Las Vegas Knights used Saturday's game against the San Diego Fusion as a measuring stick.

The Knights, a semi-professional indoor soccer team based out of the Las Vegas Sports Park in Summerlin, narrowly lost to the Fusion, 9-8. The Fusion have won three Premier Arena Soccer League championships in the last seven seasons.
We gave them a fight," Knights coach Meir Cohen said. "We're disappointed we lost the game but they had to work hard in order to beat us today. We just couldn't get the momentum. We were chasing them the whole game."

The game was a back-and-forth battle from the start.
San Diego entered halftime with a 4-3 advantage. The pace picked up in the third quarter as each team netted three goals and San Diego retained a 7-6 lead entering the final period.

Knights players slammed on the glass and waived their arms to incite the more than 200 people in attendance as the fourth quarter began. The fans rejoiced soon thereafter when Roberto Garcia tied the score with eight minutes remaining.
San Diego then went on to score a pair of goals to retake the lead 9-7.
The Knights Manny Kouhaiz scored with a minute remaining, but Las Vegas couldn't get any closer.

"I think we played the best team in the league probably," Kouhaiz said. "It's good because we can see what we have to work on. But I definitely think we could have won the game."
Marco Pina and Itzik Rapaport each scored two goals for the Knights while Rene Abrego and Mike Mason also found the net.
The loss brings the Knights record to 1-3-1. Before the season began, Las Vegas was set to host the national tournament at the Las Vegas Sports Park.
Now to secure a seed in the tournament, the Knights must win two of their remaining four games, including home games against the Arizona Heat on Feb. 7 and the Chico Bigfoot on Feb. 28. The national tournament will be held March 6 and 7.
Sanchez said he was disappointed at the result of the San Diego game but expected the team to bounce back. "They're a good team," Sanchez said. "Every time we scored a goal and got some momentum they scored right after us.

Christopher Drexel can be reached at 990-8929 or christopher.drexel@hbcpub.com.

Photos by Richard Brian-Las Vegas Sun
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