The St. Louis Ambush defeated the cross-state rival Kansas City Comets Friday night at the Silverstein Eye Centers Arena in Independence by the same score they lost to the Comets just six days earlier. The Comets prevailed 7-6 on February 3 on the Ambush home turf and St. Louis turned the tables on Kansas City by winning 7-6 Friday night on the Comets’ home turf. The win improved the Ambush record to 3-15 on the season, while the Comets dropped to 5-13.
The Ambush took an early 1-0 lead when Raphael Nascimento took a shot that Comets goalkeeper Mark Saxby blocked with his body, the ball rebounding back to Nascimento, hitting his body as he went down, sending the ball into the back of the net at 1:35 of the first quarter. The visitors increased the lead to 2-0 when Jerjer Gibson took a long pass from Dylan Hundelt and beat Saxby at 5:39. JT Thomas made the score 3-0 with his goal at 13:46.
St. Louis took a 4-0 lead at 9:06 of the second quarter when Richard Schmermund sent a pass to a charging Corey Adamson, who got a foot on it and sent it into the goal. The Comets responded with consecutive goals by Adam James nine seconds apart (9:25 and 9:34) to cut the Ambush lead in half. The Comets gained a power play opportunity when officials gave Richard Schermund a two-minute trip to the penalty box for pushing at 10:56. St. Louis went up 5-2 when Daniel Berko shot wide, but Hundelt was in position to stop it and direct it into the net for a short-handed goal at 11:49. Kiel Williams answered for the Comets with an unassisted tally at 12:42 and the Ambush enjoyed a 5-3 lead at halftime.
The Ambush increased the lead to 6-3 when player/coach Hewerton was left open and scored with relative ease off a pass from Lucas Almeida at 13:41 for the lone goal of the third quarter.
Ignacio Flores moved the Comets closer when he scored six minutes into the final stanza to make the score 6-4. Less than two minutes later (7:23), the Ambush would get that goal back when Gibson scored his second of the contest. The Comets staged a strong comeback with consecutive goals 15 seconds apart. Guerrero Pino scored at 9:00 and Adam James completed the hat trick at 9:15 to make it a one-goal game (7-6) once again. Despite the comeback effort by Kansas City, St. Louis held on until the final buzzer to seal the win.
Kansas City goalkeeper Max Saxby, playing in his first Major Arena Soccer League game, made seven saves on 14 save attempts. Ambush goalkeeper Paulo saved 17 on 23 attempts in earning his third win of the season.
The Ambush are back in action tomorrow night (Saturday, February 10) when they host the Cedar Rapids Rampage at 7:05 p.m. CT at the Family Arena. Prior to that game, the Ambush will salute 30 seasons of professional indoor soccer in St. Louis with an alumni game featuring previous St. Louis Steamers, St. Louis Storm and St. Louis Ambush players taking the field against former players from other MISL and NPSL teams. The Alumni Game is slated for 5:00 p.m. and a ticket for the Ambush-Rampage game includes admission to the Alumni Game as well.
