The St. Louis Ambush pulled off a thrilling 5-4 overtime win against the Tacoma Stars Sunday afternoon at the Family Arena. The victory improved the Ambush to 7-7 on the season, while Tacoma dropped to 3-5.
Micheal Ramos scored in the first minute of the match on a restart to give the visitors an early 1-0 lead. Tacoma forward Eddie Na drew Ambush goalkeeper Paulo out of the goal, then scored in the sixth minute to make it 2-0. The Ambush went on a power play when Tacoma was called for too many men on the field in the last second of the first quarter. With the power play still on, St. Louis made good on the opportunity when Tony Walls scored off a pass from Lucas Almeida at 1:24 of the second period. Neither team found the back of the net again, giving Tacoma a 2-1 lead at halftime.
As they did in the first half, Tacoma struck fast in the second half as Ramos made it 3-1 with his second of the contest just 25 seconds into the third frame. Just over three minutes later, Willie Spurr was able to beat Paulo to increase Tacoma’s lead to 4-1. St. Louis chipped away at the lead when Stefan Mijatovic scored on a long shot from beyond the yellow line to make the score 4-2 at 13:01 of the third quarter. The home team would shave Tacoma’s lead again when Felipe Silva scored off a pass from Ado Jahic in the second minute of the fourth quarter to make it a 4-3 game. St. Louis scored the equalizer (4-4) when Paulo passed to JT Thomas who used his body to deflect the ball into the net at 11:03. The score remained knotted at the end of regulation play, sending the match into a ten minute sudden death overtime period.
At 1:36 of overtime, Mijatovic sent the ball into the wall and the rebound found JT Thomas, who was in perfect position to nail the game winner, which he did.
The Ambush outshot Tacoma 28-11. Ambush goalkeeper Paulo made five saves on nine attempts (.556 Sv%). Tacoma goalkeeper Chris Toth stopped 16 on 21 attempts (.762 Sv%).
Next for the Ambush is their regular season finale when they host the Dallas Sidekicks Friday, March 12 at 7:35 p.m. CST at Axius Field at the Family Arena. Tickets for upcoming home games are available at the Family Arena box office or online at ticketmaster.com. All Ambush games can also be viewed online at Facebook Live PPV.
