The St. Louis Ambush notched their third consecutive victory when they defeated the Tacoma Stars 5-3 at the Family Arena Sunday evening. The win improved the Ambush to 3-2 on the season, while Tacoma dropped to 1-1.
The Ambush got on the board first when Tony Walls took a ball to the face and managed to send it to JT Thomas, who fired it past Tacoma goalkeeper Danny Waltman at 6:47 of the first quarter. It would take until 4:29 of the second period for Tacoma to answer when Jamael Cox got a shot by Ambush goalkeeper Paulo Nascimento. No one found the back of the net for the remainder of the quarter, sending the teams to the locker rooms at halftime knotted at one.
The Ambush went up 2-1 on a restart when Max Ferdinand passed to Stefan Mijatovic, who was able to thread the needle through Tacoma’s defensive wall and Waltman at 7:31 of the third quarter. It would be the lone goal of the period, sending the game into the final stanza with the Ambush holding a slim lead.
The home team increased their lead to 3-1 when goalkeeper Paulo brought the ball down and was able to beat Waltman with his shot at 2:27 of the final frame. Paulo again tried some offensive magic minutes later, but this time it backfired as Douglas Lima caught him out of the goal and scored at 3:33 to make the score 3-2. The Ambush would get one back when Ado Jahic sent a pass across the goal mouth to a waiting Duduca Carvalho, who scored at 5:24. The back and forth continued when former Ambush player Pablo Da Silva scored against his former team to once again make it a one-goal game (4-3) at 8:23 of the fourth quarter. Ferdinand and Mijatovic repeated their restart performance from the third quarter as Ferdinand passed to Mijatovic, who once again made a skillful shot for his second tally of the game at 11:37 for a 5-3 Ambush lead that would hold until the final buzzer.
Paulo made 12 saves in 15 opportunities in earning the win in goal for the Ambush, while Waltman saved 16 in 21 chances. The Ambush outshot the Stars 25 to 24.
The Ambush continue their current home stand when the Florida Tropics come to town for a pair of games January 29 at 7:35 p.m. CST and January 31 at 3:05 p.m. CST, followed by a two-game set against the Ontario Fury February 5 and 6. 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.
