On Saturday, Pappas earned his fourth career shutout over 388 games as the Kixx blanked the Baltimore Blast, 4-0. It was the first shutout in the high-scoring Major Indoor Soccer League in almost two years.

Pappas is the indoor soccer league's active leader in shutouts, which are as rare as baseball's no-hitters - maybe even more unusual.

To Pappas, however, there was nothing extraordinary about his feat.

"I played a decent game and made decent saves," Pappas said Wednesday. "But I don't think people would have left the arena and said it was a great game in goal."

The 11-year pro made 14 stops, but just as a pitcher relies on his fielders, a keeper needs a little help from his defenders.

Early in the fourth quarter, Pappas shanked a kick out of bounds, giving the Blast a restart from the top of the box. "I thought, 'OK, this is where the goal comes,' " Pappas said. But defender Drew Kopp blocked a low free kick and Pappas handled the rest in what proved to be a defensive slugfest.

The win upped the Kixx' record to 6-8 as they near the midpoint of the season. Still, the defending MISL champions are stuck in seventh place, a game behind their chief rivals in Baltimore. The Kixx host the Orlando Sharks tomorrow at 7:05 p.m. at the Spectrum.

"The win was the bigger thing, because we've lost a bunch of games with bad defensive play," said Pappas, the reigning MISL goalkeeper of the week. "We're not the best offensive team, so our success is going to come with defense."

With 16 games to play, there is still time to make up ground. Pappas has been around long enough to see it done. The Philadelphia University product is one of two players - including player-coach Don D'Ambra - to have been with the franchise since its inception in 1996.

He has been named MISL goalkeeper of the year four times and has been in net for two title teams. And yet, after all these years, Pappas feels he is playing at the highest level of his career.

"Mentally, I'm a lot smarter," said Pappas, who owns a baby boutique in Wayne, Delaware County, with his wife, Kristina. "I'm maybe not as quick and can't jump as high. But I think overall I'm better."

Still, when asked about his best outing, Pappas did not even mention one of his shutouts. The 35-year-old cited an 8-6 double-overtime loss to Milwaukee in 1999 as his best performance.

"It seemed like everything was going my way," Pappas said.