The St. Louis Ambush defeated the Kansas City Comets 8-5 on the road Friday night at the Silverstein Eye Centers Arena in Independence. The win improved the Ambush to 5-5 on the season, while the Comets fell to 4-5. It also enabled the Ambush to swap spots with the Comets in the South Central Division standings, giving the Ambush second place and dropping the Comets to third.
The opening frame expired with the score knotted 1-1. Kansas City’s goal came from forward Anthony Grant and the equalizer for the Ambush came five minutes later from Douglas Dos Santos.
The Comets took a 2-1 lead in the second quarter when the Ambush defense left forward Kiel Williams wide open, enabling him to take a pass from Alain Matingou and fire a low shot into the net. Goals by forwards Stefan St. Louis and Justin Stinson gave the Ambush their first lead of the match. The Comets drew even when forward Adam James found the back of the net in the final minute of the period to make the score 3-3 at halftime.
Within the first minute of the third frame, Grant was sent to the penalty box after slamming Stinson into the boards, giving the Ambush a power play. The visitors made good on the opportunity when forward Zach Reget scored his tenth goal of the season to give his team a 4-3 lead. The Ambush went up by two when Dos Santos navigated a difficult angle shot for his second tally of the night to make the score 5-3. The visitors grew the lead when Stefan St. Louis served up a beautiful long pass to defender Robert Acosta, who found his mark and give his team a 6-3 advantage. Ambush defender Pepe scored his first goal of the season to increase the lead to 7-3. The Comets answered when a shot by midfielder Lucas Rodriguez hit the cross bar then bounced down and into the net. The Ambush took a 7-4 lead into the final stanza.
With just under seven minutes remaining in the contest, the Comets employed the sixth attacker with Rodriguez filling the role. With less than four minutes remaining, Reget outpaced Rodriguez for his second tally of the night to make the score 8-4. Kansas City chipped away at the lead when defender Robert Palmer scored in the final two minutes to reduce the Ambush lead to 8-5.
Ambush goalkeeper Paulo was absolutely brilliant in the game, stopping 23 of the 28 shots he faced (.821 save percentage) on his way to his fourth win of the season. What makes his performance even more impressive is the fact that at different points in the game, Paulo took a ball to the face and a foot to the face from a Comets player. While Paulo turned in a stellar performance, his teammates did their part to keep their opponents from scoring, blocking 16 Comets shots. Kansas City goalkeeper Brett Petricek made nine saves in 16 attempts (.563 save percentage) in taking his fifth loss of the season.
The Ambush won’t have much time to savor the win, as they are back in action Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. at the Family Arena when Utica City FC comes to town for the only time this season.For those unable to attend in person, all MASL games are webcast live at masl.tv.
