COMETS STREAK BY AMBUSH 11-6

by Jim Fossell

Independence, Missouri (November 27, 2021) – The St. Louis Ambush fell 11-6 to the Kansas City Comets Saturday night at the Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence. The loss was the second in two days and gave the Ambush an 0-2 start on the young season, while the Comets improved to 2-0.

Kansas City drew first blood when John Sosa scored on a restart 2:31 into the game. The Comets went on a power play at 5:23 when Ambush goalkeeper Sway Mazon was blue-carded for tripping. Just over 30 seconds later, Kevin Ellis made good on the man advantage with an upper ninety shot out of Sway’s reach to make it 2-0. The Comets kept the pressure on when James Togbah scored at 6:53. The Ambush hurt themselves again when they earned their second blue card of the quarter, this time to Richard Schmermund for holding. The penalty resulted in a penalty kick, which John Sosa converted to a goal with relative ease to increase Kansas City’s lead to 4-0 at 8:37. Kansas City wasn’t done yet as Ignacio Flores found the net open when Sway was still down from a save attempt, allowing Flores to score off a pass from Lesia Thetsane at 10:06 to increase the Comets’ lead to 5-0. The Ambush finally got on the board at 11:22 when Ado Jahic scored on a restart to make it a 5-1 game. In the final minute of the opening period, Leo Gibson scored on a restart at 14:23 to give the Comets a 6-1 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

While the Comets owned the first stanza, the Ambush bounced back to control the second. Robby Kristo scored his first goal as a member of the Ambush just 14 seconds into the second frame to make it 6-2. St. Louis got a power play when Kansas City’s Kyle McLagan was sent to the penalty box for tripping at 3:46, resulting in a JT Thomas goal at 5:14. The visitors went on another power play when Togbah was sent to the sin bin for tripping at 5:37, and the Ambush made good on the advantage once again when Mo Ndiaye scored off a pass from Duduca at 5:43 for a 6-4 score. The Ambush posted their fourth consecutive tally on another power play, when Triston Austin found the back of the net with 20 seconds left in the first half to make it 6-5 at the buzzer.

After a scorefest in the first half, the second half didn’t see a goal until the last minute of the third quarter, when the Comets notched two. Leo Gibson scored at 14:36. Schmermund got his second blue card of the match for pushing at 14:48, setting up the second Kansas City goal of the contest, courtesy of Kevin Ellis at 14:59, to give the Comets an 8-5 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The shower of blue cards continued to come down as Sway was carded for handling at 2:40, giving the Comets another power play and penalty kick. Ellis took the ball and completed the hat trick at 2:40 for a 9-5 Kansas City lead. Sway came out of the goal and slide-tackled Togbah, resulting in Sway fouling out of the game. After the tackle, Togbah got off the turf and scored for a 10-5 Comets lead at 5:17. Chris “Tito” Favela came in to make his MASL debut in replacement of Sway. With the sixth attacker in play for the Ambush, Gibson scored at 8:20 to complete his own hat trick and increase his team’s lead to 11-5. In the last minute (14:16) of the match, Jahic notched his second goal of the game for an 11-6 game, a score that would hold until the final buzzer.

When these two cross-state rival meet, the action is often fierce and physical and this duel was no different. Officials handed out 11 blue cards (five to the Ambush, six to the Comets) and one yellow card (to the Comets). In addition, by fouling out of the game, Sway earned an automatic red card.

Next for the Ambush is a trip to Texas to face the Dallas Sidekicks Saturday, December 4 at 7:00 p.m. CST. The next Ambush home game is slated for December 19, when the Milwaukee Wave invade The Family Arena for a 4:05 p.m. match. Fans can stay current on all Ambush news by visiting the team’s official website, stlambush.com and on social media outlets.