The St. Louis Ambush shut the door on 2023 with a loss to the cross-state rival Kansas City Comets Sunday afternoon at The Family Arena. The 6-5 victory for the Comets improved their record to 6-1-0 on the season, while the Ambush dropped to 1-5-1.
St. Louis got on the board first when Marcel Berry scored off a pass from Zachary Druhe in the fifth minute of the opening period. The Ambush went up 2-0 at the seven minute mark when Billy Stimac got off a shot into the board and the rebound found a charging Skylar Funk, who fired the ball into the net.
Kansas City got their first tally in the second minute of the second quarter on a restart goal from Zach Reget. The Comets went on a power play in the tenth minute of the period when Ambush forward Robert Kristo was sent off for contact above the shoulder. The visitors made good on the opportunity when Ray Lee put the ball out of reach of Ambush goalkeeper Paulo Nascimento. The score was knotted 2-2 at halftime.
Kansas City took a 3-2 lead in the first minute of the third frame when Ray Lee beat Nascimento with a high shot for his second goal of the match. Reget scored his second of the contest off a pass from Lee in the eighth minute for a 4-2 score. Kansas City’s Michael Lenis caught Nascimento too far out of position and gave the Comets a 5-2 lead in the ninth minute of the quarter. Just under a minute later, St. Louis went on a power play when Kansas City’s Ignacio Flores earned a blue card for holding. The Ambush made it 5-3 when James Togbah scored on a restart. The Comets wasted no time answering when Reget completed the hat trick in the thirteenth minute of the third quarter. St. Louis scored in the fourteenth minute when Neto made a save but didn’t get control of the ball, which found the foot of Lucas Almeida, who found the back of the net to make it 6-4.
The Ambush staged a late comeback in the final stanza, with William Eskay scoring with 25.6 seconds remaining in the game. That comeback would prove to be too little, too late as the Comets hung on in the final seconds to leave town with the win.
Next for the Ambush is a trip to Baltimore to square off with the Blast Friday January 5, 2024 at 6:35 p.m. CT. The next Ambush home stand will be back-to-back games on Friday, January 12, 2024 and Saturday, January 13. The Milwaukee Wave invade The Family Arena for the January 12 duel at 7:35 p.m. CT and Utica City FC comes to town for the January 13 affair at 6:05 p.m. CT. All games are webcast at twitch.com.
