The St. Louis Ambush lost their first of back-to-back road games when they fell 8-3 to the Harrisburg Heat Friday night at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Arena. The Heat improved their record to 3-1 while the Ambush fell to 0-5.
Harrisburg owned the opening period, scoring the only two goals. Tom Mellor got an unassisted tally at 4:19 and Stephen Basso scored with a top shelf shot at 13:42.
The Heat increased their lead to three on Elmo Neto’s tally at 3:43 of the second quarter. The Ambush got on the board at 11:09 on a restart goal by Hewerton. Pablo Da Silva, who was just acquired by St. Louis from Cedar Rapids, wasted no time impressing his new teammates, as he scored off a pass from Lucas Almeida at 12:42. Harrisburg was awarded a shootout when St. Louis goalkeeper Paulo toppled Leandro Duarte with a slide. It would prove to be a costly move on Paulo’s part as Lucio Gonzaga easily scored for Harrisburg at 13:44, giving the Heat held a 4-2 lead at halftime.
The Ambush chipped away at the lead when a shot by Hewerton bounced off Corey Adamson and into the goal to make the score 4-3 at 3:39 of the third quarter. Harrisburg scored when St. Louis goalkeeper Paulo brought the ball out between the arc and the yellow line, only to have it stolen by Ricardinho Carvalho, who scored easily with Paulo out of the goal, to give the home team a 5-3 lead they would hold until the end of the period.
Gonzaga increased Harriburg’s lead to three (6-3) when posted his second goal of the night, scoring off a long pass from Thiago Freitas two minutes into the fourth quarter. The Heat went up 7-3 when Elmo Neto scored, assisted by Freitas, at 8:57. With Hewerton wearing the sixth attacher jersey for the Ambush, Gonzaga completed the hat trick with a long shot into the empty net at 12:30. It would be the last goal for either team as Harriburg held on for the 8-3 win.
Hugo Silva registered 14 saves on 17 attempts (.824) in earning the win in goal for the Heat, while Paulo saved seven on 13 attempts (.538) in taking the loss for the Ambush.
The road trip continues for the Ambush tomorrow, as they visit Baltimore to tangle with the Blast at 5:05 p.m. CT. The Ambush return home to the Family Arena to host the Milwaukee Wave on Friday, December 8 at 7:35 p.m. CT.
