Twisters in Championship

Look To Defend Title in Finals Rematch

March 14, 2008

Who: Massachusetts Twisters vs. Rockport Rampage
What: AISL Championship
Where: Victory Sports Complex, Ill.
When: 7:30 p.m.

The Massachusetts Twisters are looking to defend their title in a rematch of last year’s American Indoor Soccer League Championship this Saturday night at the Victory Sports Complex in Illinois.

The Twisters will face the Rockport Rampage, whom they beat in last year’s final, 11-5. The two clubs squared off just a week before this week’s final, last Saturday, with Rockport attempting to improve to 13-0.

But while the Rampage had the “Pursuit of Perfection” on their collective minds, there was one thing they couldn’t prepare for – the weather. The wild weekend weather forced the Rampage to find a later flight into Springfield.

When they finally landed, not only did they have to deal with the travel fatigue, they also had to face a Twisters team that needed to win to get to the title match. In front of a season-high crowd of almost fifteen hundred, Kyle Texiera set a team record with six goals, which helped power the Twisters to a convincing 10-4 victory over the Rampage, punching their ticket to the Championship Game.

A six-goal performance earned Texiera the league’s Player of the Week honor. His offensive outburst (5 one-point goals and 1 two-pointer), set not only a team record, but also was the second most goals scored in the AISL by one player this season.

Meanwhile, the Rampage are three quarters of the way to making it a clean sweep of the American Indoor Soccer League’s postseason award list. In addition to taking the league’s regular season championship, the AISL announced Wednesday that Rampage goalkeeper Dimitri Meletis was named the AISL’s Most Valuable Player and head coach Jeff Kraft was named the AISL’s Coach of the Year.