AMBUSH DROP SECOND GAME TO DALLAS

by Jim Fossell

St. Charles, Missouri (December 31, 2021) – The St. Louis Ambush got swept by the Dallas Sidekicks when they lost the second game of a two-game series Friday afternoon at The Family Arena. After falling 4-3 to the Sidekicks on Thursday in Texas, the Ambush lost 8-3 on Friday. The loss dropped the Ambush to 2-4 on the season, while Dallas improved to 2-3.

Dallas drew first blood when Gustavo Piedra scored the lone goal of the first quarter at 5:57. The Sidekicks made it 2-0 when Jamie Lovegrove was left wide open and scored with ease off a pass from Luiz Morales at 9:37 of the second stanza. St. Louis finally got on the board with four seconds remaining in the first half when Vadim Cojocov took a shot that came off the board and Lucas Almeida was in position to fire the rebound into the net. At halftime, the visitors enjoyed a 2-1 lead.

Cojocov scored the equalizer for the Ambush at 2:22 of the third frame when he nailed a header into the net. Dallas quickly responded when the Ambush defense faltered, allowing two goals less than a minute apart. The scorers for Dallas were Kristian Quintana at 3:38 and Brenden Lee at 4:12, making the score 4-2 in favor of the visitors. Dallas added another tally when Sebastian Mendez took a pass from Cameron Brown and beat Ambush goalkeeper Tito Favela at 7:54 of the third to make it a 5-2 game heading into the fourth quarter.

The first tally of the final period also belonged to Dallas when David Ortiz scored at 7:35 to give the Sidekicks a 6-2 lead. With the sixth attacker in play for St. Louis, Ortiz scored his second of the match at 11:28 to increase the lead to 7-2. Luiz Morales scored an empty-netter 30 seconds later to make it an 8-2 game.  The Ambush got one back when Ado Jahic scored off a pass from Mo Ndiaye at 12:32 for an 8-3 score. 

The Ambush will next see action when they visit the Tacoma Stars for a Friday-Sunday two game series on January 7 and 9, 2022. The next Ambush home game is slated for January 14 when the Kansas City Comets invade The Family Arena for a 7:35 p.m. contest.