The St. Louis Ambush closed out the 2016-17 season with a loss when the fell 3-1 to the Baltimore Blast Sunday afternoon at the Family Arena. The Ambush finished with a 1-19 record and the win improved Baltimore to 13-6.
Baltimore drew first blood when Andrew Hoxie put the ball passed Ambush goalkeeper Casey Clark at 5:56 of the opening stanza. Neither team found the back of the net again for the remainder of the first quarter and all of the second quarter, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead at halftime.
In an unusual occurrence in professional indoor soccer, neither team scored in the third period. The fourth quarter remained scoreless until the 7:39 mark when Daniel Peruzzi beat Clark to make the score 2-0. At 9:17, Blast defender Pat Healey was sent to the penalty box on a hand ball, giving the Ambush a penalty kick that Lucas Almeida fired into the corner of the goal to make it a one-goal game again. With Almeida in as the sixth attacker, Baltimore increased the lead to 3-1 when Nelson Santana put a shot into the open goal. Neither team scored again, bringing the curtain down on the Ambush season with a game well-played, but a loss nonetheless.
Ambush Head Coach Tony Glavin reflected on the loss and on the season. “Our season was bad, very bad. I get that,” Glavin said. “But there are so many areas in which this team has grown and now we need to build on that. When you play as close as we did to one of the best teams in the league, that’s great.” Glavin added that needed changes will be made during the off-season and that the team has a solid foundation to build on for next year.
Goalkeeper Casey Clark turned in one of his best performances on Sunday, but has faced his share of criticism during the season, but tried to make something positive out of it. “I tried to take all criticism and learn from it,” said Clark, who finished his first-ever season playing professionally and playing indoors. “I came into something I’ve never done before and quickly realized how much I had to learn,” Clark said. “I am looking forward to next season and plan to come back better.”
