It was a home sweet home opener for the St. Louis Ambush, who defeated the Kansas City Comets 7-6 Saturday night at the Family Arena. The win improved the Ambush to 2-2 on the season, while the Comets dropped to 1-3.
The visitors drew first blood when Hector Solorio scored off a pass from Mirko Sandivari 9:21 into the opening stanza. The Comets increased their lead to two when Comets goalkeeper Nicolau Neto sent a long pass to Rian Marques, who beat Ambush goalkeeper Paulo Nascimento at 13:13. The first quarter elapsed with Kansas City enjoying a 2-0 lead.
The Ambush got on the board at 2:15 of the second period on Howard Miller, Jr.’s unassisted tally to make the score 2-1. The Ambush drew even (2-2) when a shot by Miller rebounded off the board to Ado Jahic, who was able to get a foot on the ball and fire it into the net at 7:29. The Ambush took a 3-2 lead when Lucas Almeida found the back of the net at 11:21, but the Comets answered less than a minute later on Marques’ second goal of the night, then followed that up with another from Adam James at 13:52, to take a 4-3 lead into halftime.
Sandivari increased the Comets’ lead to 5-3 with an unassisted goal just 25 seconds into the second half. Lucas Sousa executed an effective upper ninety shot at 3:28, for the fourth consecutive goal for Kansas City, to increase their lead to 6-3. Vadim Cojocov got one back for St. Louis when he took the ball from Magui Souza, made a long run, and was able to beat Neto at 9:45 of the third quarter. The Comets held a 6-4 lead at the end of the third period.
St. Louis continued to chip away at the lead when Duduca sent a pass to Cojocov, who was able to place a shot out of Neto’s reach, to make the score 6-5 at 1:46 of the fourth quarter. The equalizer (6-6) came on a restart, when Max Ferdinand passed to Duduca, who fired a rocket into the net at 2:53. With the clock ticking down, Sam Guernsey scored off a pass from Ferdinand to give the Ambush a 7-6 lead at 13:41. The Ambush defense held strong, including an amazing block at the goal mouth from Magui, prevented the visitors from scoring and secured the home opener triumph.
The Ambush outshot the Comets 26-21 in the match. Officials gave the Ambush one blue card, while Kansas City got one blue and two yellow cards in the contest. Paulo made 11 saves in 17 save opportunities in taking the win in goal for the Ambush. Neto save 16 in 23 chances in goal for Kansas City.
The Ambush continue their January home stand when the Tacoma Stars invade the Family Arena on Sunday, January 24 at 5:05 p.m. CST. The month concludes with two games at the Family Arena against the Florida Tropics, on January 29 and 31. Tickets for upcoming home games are available at the Family Arena box office or online at ticketmaster.com. All Ambush games can also be viewed online at Facebook Live PPV.
