AMBUSH GET CAUGHT IN TROPICAL STORM

by Jim Fossell

Lakeland, Florida (January 30, 2022) – The St. Louis Ambush dropped a 13-8 contest to the Florida Tropics Sunday at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida. It was the second loss of the weekend for the Ambush, who find themselves with a 5-7 record at the halfway point in their season. Florida continues to dominate the opposition, improving to 10-1 with the win.

Florida wasted no time doing damage, scoring the first two goals of the match in just over two minutes. The Ambush answered with two of their own before Florida cranked up the offense with four in a row. Florida goals came from Chad Vandegriffe, Zach Reget, Bruno Henrique, Victor Parreiras and two from Ricardo Carvalho. Ambush goals came from Tony Walls and Mohamed Ndiaye. The home team held a 6-2 lead at the end of the first quarter. 

While the opening frame was a scorefest, the second period was relatively quiet. Each team scored once, with Florida’s goal coming from Parreiras at 5:53 and St. Louis’ coming from JT Thomas at 8:02, giving the Tropics a 7-3 lead at halftime.

The third stanza mirrored the second, with each team finding the back of the net once. William Eskay scored for the Ambush at 1:48 and Joshio Sandoval for the Tropics at 10:05, giving Florida an 8-4 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Things didn’t get better for the Ambush early in the final period as they were on a power play and gave up a short-handed goal to the Tropics, scored by Rafa Alves, to make it a 9-4 game. The Ambush answered 22 seconds later when Robert Kristo scored, making the score 9-5. Ambush goalkeeper Sway Mazon left the game after injuring his ankle and the team played the rest of the game with the sixth attacker. Florida would score four more times in the match, coming from Carvalho, Reget, Henrique and Breno Oliveira. St. Louis managed two more goals, courtesy of Thomas and Kristo. The final score of 13-8  will undoubtedly give interim head coach Jeff Locker and his team plenty to work on as they embark on the second half of the season.

The officiating crew stayed busy during the match, handing out a total of 12 cards. Florida collected one yellow card, four blue cards and one red card. St. Louis received one yellow card and five blue cards. 

Next for the Ambush is a visit to Milwaukee to tangle with the Wave on February 6 before returning home to The Family Arena to host the Chihuahua Savage on Friday, February 11 at 7:35 p.m. CST.

Tickets for all remaining Ambush home games are available at the Family Arena box office and at ticketmaster.com. Fans can stay current on all Ambush news by visiting the team’s official website, stlambush.com and on social media outlets.