Playing with a thin roster, the St. Louis Ambush dropped a 9-5 game to the Kansas City Comets Friday night at the Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence. The win improved the Comets to 3-4, while the Ambush dropped to 4-6.
For the second straight weekend, the Ambush were down a dozen players thanks to injuries, illnesses or quarantine. Although the remaining players played a gritty sixty minutes, a win wasn’t in the cards on this cold winter night in Independence.
Matt Lewis scored off a Rian Marques shot that came off the wall and back to Lewis in the sixth minute of the first quarter. Just under three minutes later, Kansas City went up 2-0 when Ray Lee scored off a pass from Ramone Palmer. St. Louis answered less than a minute later when Jerjer Gibson, parked near the goal mouth, scored off a pass from JT Thomas. With just over three minutes remaining in the opening stanza, Adam James tapped in a backheel shot to make the score 3-1 in favor of the Comets.
Marques made it a 4-1 contest with his goal just 26 seconds into the second period. Nearly two minutes later, the Ambush received two blue cards, giving the Comets a five versus three advantage on the field. The remaining three St. Louis players and goalkeeper Paulo Nascimento somehow killed off that advantage and kept the Comets from increasing the lead. Kansas City would kill off an Ambush power play before the end of the quarter, with the score standing at 4-1 Comets at halftime.
James scored his second in the contest just over a minute into the second half to increase the Comets’ lead to 5-1. In the sixth minute of the third quarter, Ambush rookie Alexis Robles scored his first MASL goal to trim the Comets’ lead to 5-2. James struck again when he completed the hat trick at 7:10. Less than a minute later, William Eskay, acquired this week from Harrisburg, made his mark as a member of the Ambush when he stole the ball from Ray Lee and beat Comets goalkeeper Neto to make it a 6-3 game. In the final second of the third frame, Ray Lee scored his second of the night give the Comets a 7-3 lead.
In the seventh minute of the final quarter, Eskay nailed his second goal of the night when he beat Comets goalkeeper Neto with a shot into the top of the net to trim the lead to 7-4. Just over a minute later, JT Thomas took a pass from Max Ferdinand and executed a skilful shot from the corner to chip away at the Comets’ lead (7-5). With just over two minutes left in the game, Mike DaSilva caught Paulo out of the net and scored easily to increase the Comets’ lead to 8-5. Kansas City wasn’t done yet, as Adam James scored his fourth of the night, in the final minute of the match, for a 9-5 final score.
The Ambush will be back in action when they host the San Diego Sockers in a two-game set on Friday, February 26 at 7:35 p.m. CST and Sunday, February 28 at 3:05 p.m. CST at the Axius Field at the Family Arena. February 26 is also Retro Night with the Ambush wearing 1979 St. Louis Steamers replica kits and the Sockers wearing corresponding throwback kits of their own from the era. Alumni players who have played for previous Steamers, Storm and Ambush professional clubs are also invited to attend this game and will be provided with two complimentary tickets per player by emailing [email protected].
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.
