Fielding a team nine players short, the remaining St. Louis Ambush players played a hard sixty minutes but came up short, falling 5-4 to the Ontario Fury Friday night at the Family Arena. The win gave the Fury a 1-0 start to the season while the loss dropped the Ambush to 4-4.
Due to possible COVID-19 exposure and following prescribed protocols, the following six Ambush players were unavailable for Friday’s game and will be unavailable on Saturday as well: Max Ferdinand, Sam Guernsey, Stefan Mijatovic, Wil Nyamsi, Paulo Nascimento and Richard Schmermund. Three other players; Duduca Carvalho, Pepe Junqueira and Ado Jahic, were already sidelined by previous injuries and were thus unavailable for Friday’s contest.
Each team tallied a goal in the first quarter, with Howard Miller, Jr. scoring for the Ambush and Robert Palmer for the Fury. Miller struck again in the second minute of the second period, giving the home team a 2-1 lead. Just over ten minutes later, the Ambush increased their lead to 3-1 when Lucas Almeida sent the ball into the wall and the rebound found Felipe Silva, who fired a rocket into the goal. The first half elapsed with St. Louis enjoying a two-goal lead.
Ontario shaved the lead when former Ambush player Nestor Hernandez was able to beat Ambush goalkeeper Brett Petricek in the eighth minute of the third frame to make the score 3-2. The equalizer came for Ontario came from scoring machine Franck Tayou just over ten minutes into the period. The Ambush answered less than two minutes later when Corey Adamson took a pass from Lucas Almeida and skillfully navigated a difficult angle to find the back of the net and retake the lead (4-3). Tayou struck again in the final minute of the quarter to knot the score at four heading into the final stanza.
The fourth period was scoreless until the final minute, when Tayou completed the hat trick with a hard fast shot that just eluded Petricek, giving the visitors a 5-4 victory.
Despite the loss, Petricek turned in a stellar performance in goal, stopping 16 of 21 shots faced for a .762 save percentage. Claysson De Lima took the win in goal for Ontario, making eight saves in 12 save opportunities, for a .667 save percentage. Ontario outshot St. Louis 38-17 in the contest.
Neither the Ambush or the Fury will have much time to rest before returning to action as these same two teams collide again Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. CST at Axius Field at the Family Arena. All Ambush home games are at Axius Field at the Family Arena. 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.
