The St. Louis Ambush closed out 2017 much the way the rest of the year has gone for them, losing 8-5 to the Florida Tropics on New Year’s Eve at the Family Arena. The loss dropped the Ambush to a 1-10 record, while Florida improved to 6-4.
The Ambush struck first when a shot by player/coach Hewerton was blocked by Guilherme Dos Santos, rebounding to Clayton Matheus, who fired it into the net at 5:43 of the first quarter. Florida answered when Victor Parreiras was left open and got off a shot that hit the crossbar and into the goal at 11:43. St. Louis took the lead back less than two minutes later (13:14) when Jerjer Gibson was able to beat Florida goalkeeper Piotr Sliwa. The back-and-forth continued when Ty Hall, near the yellow line, launched a long shot that sailed over the head of Ambush goalkeeper Casey Clark and into the goal at 14:25
The Ambush took a 3-2 lead when Nestor Hernandez found the back of the net with a shot near the goal mouth at 3:05 of the second period. Florida knotted the score again on a restart goal by Mauricio Salles at 6:12. The Tropics took their first lead of the contest when Ricardo De Queroz Diegues caught Clark out of the goal and scored easily at 9:10. With no further scoring in the quarter, the visitors enjoyed a 4-3 lead at halftime.
Florida opened up a 6-3 lead early in the third quarter goals by Freddy Moojen (:18) and the second of the contest from Diegues (2:53). The Tropics kept the Ambush from chipping away at the lead, which remained 6-3 heading into the final period.
The Tropics increased their lead to 7-3 when Lucas Coutinho went on a long run and got off a shot that eluded Clark at 4:03 of the fourth quarter. With Hewerton in as the sixth attacker, the Ambush attempted a comeback. The Ambush reduced the deficit by one when Stefan St. Louis got a shot by Sliwa at 11:18. The home team made the score 7-5 on Clayton’s second of the game at 12:29. The comeback was too little too late, as Diegues completed the hat trick with an empty netter at 14:51, sealing the 8-5 win for the Tropics.
The cross-state rival Kansas City Comets come to town for the next Ambush game, slated for Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 7:05 p.m.
