Harrisburg Heat win MASL2 championship

The Harrisburg Heat capped a perfect season with a trophy, coming from behind to beat the Iowa Demon Hawks in the MASL2 final on Sunday night in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Heat fell behind early to an Iowa team seeking their second title in three years but battled back and took their first lead 7-6 with 3:25 to go in the game on a goal by Danny Osuji. The game ended in a narrow 9-8 win for the Heat, which dropped down to the second division of the Major Arena Soccer League this season after moving arenas to the Hersheypark Arena. The plan, announced earlier this year, was for the Heat to return to the top division next season.

Sunday’s MASL2 title was the first championship for the team, which entered professional indoor soccer in the 1991-1992 National Professional Soccer League season.

The Heat were led by Vini Dantas, an MASL veteran with 375 career regular season and playoff games who was named playoff MVP after scoring a pair of goals in both the semifinal win over Omaha on Saturday and in Sunday’s final.

The Heat compiled a perfect 12-0-0 record during the regular season while outscoring opponents 146-39 and made it two wins out of two in the playoffs.

The championship in MASL2 comes after struggles keeping up with the competition in MASL. The Heat finished last place in all four of the previous seasons in the MASL top flight.

Matthew Ralph

Matthew Ralph is the managing editor of Philadelphia Soccer Now. He's covered soccer at all levels for a decade in the Philadelphia region and has also written for TheCup.us, NPSL, PrepSoccer and other publications. He lives with his wife and two young children in Broomall, Pa., but grew up in South Jersey and is originally from Kansas.

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