The St. Louis Ambush lost 8-3 to the Florida Tropics Friday night at the Axius Field at the Family Arena. The win improved Florida to 6-0 on the season, while the Ambush dropped to 3-3.
Neither team found the back of the net during the first quarter. Ambush goalkeeper Paulo Nascimento left at 1:50 of the second quarter as a precaution due to leg pain and was replaced in goal by Brett Petricek. Ricardo Carvalho posted the first goal of the game on a restart at 8:41 of the second period. Carvalho would repeat his performance on another restart at 10:09 to give the visitors a 2-0 advantage that would hold until the halftime break.
Florida doubled their score with two goals less than a minute apart in the third quarter when Bruno Henrique scored at 2:33, followed by Victor Parreiras at 3:02 to make it a 4-0 game. Chad Vandegriffe made it 5-0 with a shot that hit the crossbar and careened into the net at 10:01.
Ambush head coach Hewerton employed the sixth attacker early, putting Stefan Mijatovic in that role to start the final stanza. St. Louis finally got on the board on a restart when Lucas Almeida passed to Richard Schmermund, who was able to beat Florida keeper Hugo Silva at 2:04 of fourth quarter. With Sam Guernsey in as the sixth attacker for the Ambush, Ian Bennett got the better of a play when both he and Guernsey went after the ball and Bennett scored at 8:20. After a frenzied series of shots and rebounds by the Ambush, the home team rattled off two quick goals, courtesy of JT Thomas (11:14) and Max Ferdinand (11:23) to make the score 6-3. Florida answered at 11:49 when former Ambush player Zach Reget made it 7-3 when he scored on his former team, followed by another tally from Guilherme Dos Santos at 13:37 to make it an 8-3 match.
Before leaving the contest, Paulo made six saves in six attempts. Petricek made three saves in nine save opportunities. In goal for Florida, Hugo Silva made 15 saves on 18 save attempts in earning the win.
The Ambush and Tropics return to Axius Field at the Family Arena for a rematch this Sunday, 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.
