In a battle of winless teams, the Cedar Rapids Rampage scored their first ever franchise victory when defeated the St. Louis Ambush 9-7 Saturday night at the US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Rampage improved to 1-7, while the Ambush dropped to 0-7.
With the score knotted at two in the second quarter, St. Louis went on an offensive frenzy, scoring four in a row, and it looked like things were going their way. With the Ambush enjoying a 7-2 lead, the Rampage roared back with seven unanswered goals to win the game 9-7.
Ambush goalkeeper Marcelo Moreira took a blow to the head in a collision with Rampage forward Alex Megson just four minutes into the contest, was helped off the field and did not return. Piotr Sliwa took over in goal and turned in a solid performance overall.
Ambush goals came from Anthony Arico, Daniel Berko, two from Richard Schmermund and three from Gordy Gurson. It was the second consecutive game in which Gurson registered a hat trick.
Scoring for the Rampage came from Patrick Kelly, Alex Tozer, two from Chile Farias, two from Sam Guernsey and a natural hat trick from Alex Megson.
The contest was very physical, with officials handing out 39 fouls (22 to the Ambush and 17 to the Rampage) and 10 penalties (five blue cards for Cedar Rapids, four blue and one yellow for St. Louis) totalling 23 penalty minutes. Immediately after the final buzzer, a brawl broke out on the pitch, so suspensions are likely as a result.
For new Ambush Head Coach Tony Glavin, this is not how he wanted his debut to go, but he now has a week to find answers and develop solutions to the team’s woes. Glavin took the reigns of the team just four days before Saturday’s contest. The Ambush are back in action next Sunday, December 27 when they host the Milwaukee Wave at 5:35 p.m. at the Family Arena.
4 comments
Losing an indoor soccer game after leading by 7 goals is inexcusable. Most teams with such a lead dominate ball possession & add more goals. The Ambush were suddenly tentative and flat footed in the 2nd half. A Cedar Rapids player scored 3 goals in a minute – baffling. They don’t have a reliable 2nd scorer behind Gurson. Collapsing in the 2nd half has become a habit. New Coach Tony Glavin will have to develop better ball handling & consistent performance the entire game. Moreover, Glavin will need to get the team to believe they can actually win a game. This is like the inaugural season all over again.
Be careful Sid, you are speaking truths… the Ambush don’t like that lol. One of our writers here wrote an artice after the first game and said they could easily start 0-5 and that Doran should be held accountable. They were so mad that I wouldn’t take the article down and censor the writer that they removed us from their press release mailings and now won’t give us media passes. lol
Your writer was prescient – Looking back, Doran should have been gone sooner. Doran selected the roster, or at least had a lot of influence. I like the players personally, not all have played badly. Some guys are injured but every team has injuries. The next guy should at least be adequate, and that has not happened. On the old Milwaukee Wave teams coached by Tozer, almost any guy he put in was productive. There was a good system & each guy performed their role. The way Glavin talked on his video interview, he made it sound like the team did not know very much about indoor soccer. What was Doran teaching the players for 2+ years? Doran also sold a lot of sponsorships & was recognized for building up the team, but his coaching was less than adequate. Tough to take such a huge step back. I hope you can get back in as media. You are doing a service to report the news. As you said, this ain’t Russia.
The Ambush finally, finally won a game – after once again falling apart late and losing to Milwaukee at home on Dec. 27, the Ambush hung on for a surprising upset of the Missouri Comets on the road by a score of 6-5. The Ambush’s newest player, Andrew Hayne (formerly a star player at Lindenwood University) scored 3 goals for a hat trick, with Gordy Gurson scoring twice and Elvir Kafezdic scoring a goal as well. The Ambush led 6-3 after 3 quarters, and withstood a mostly errant barrage of shots from the Comets in the 4th quarter behind great goalkeeping by Piotr Sliwa and a more organized defense. The Ambush are on the road January 9 against Milwaukee, and then play at home January 15 against Syracuse (a game which is starting at 11AM due to what the Ambush call a ‘schedule conflict’). Can the Ambush build a winning streak? Will the 10 days off between games blunt their momentum? Is Andrew Hayne going to continue his scoring prowess?
http://www.stlouisambush.com/news/ambush-beat-cross-state-rival
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