The St. Louis Ambush fell 4-1 to the Florida Tropics Saturday evening at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida. It was the first game of the 2021 season for both teams.
The Ambush took a 1-0 lead in the first quarter when Tony Walls was able to get a foot on a loose ball in front of the goal and put it into the net at 6:40. It would be the lone tally of the period. Florida roared back with four unanswered goals in the second quarter, courtesy of Bruno Henrique, Drew Ruggles, Lucas Montelares and Guilherme Dos Santos. Ricardo Carvalho assisted on all four Tropics goals. The home team took a 4-1 lead into halftime.
An unusually quiet second half saw no goals from either team, giving Florida a 4-1 win to kick off the season. The Ambush did a solid job of possession of the ball throughout the half, but failed to create many scoring opportunities.
The Tropics outshot the Ambush 18-12. In goal for Florida, Hugo Silva stopped 10 shots in 11 opportunities (.909 save percentage) while Paulo Nascimento made nine saves in 13 opportunities for St. Louis (.692 save percentage).
These two teams will go at it again in less than 24 hours as the Tropics host the Ambush Sunday afternoon at 2:05 p.m. CST. All Ambush games can be viewed online via Facebook Live PPV.
