5 GOALS FROM ZACH REGET POWER COMETS TO 12-6 WIN
INDEPENDENCE, MO. – The Comets’ (7-4-4) newest member, forward Zach Reget, picked up five goals in his Kansas City debut en route to a 12-6 win over the Florida Tropics (7-5-2) in the annual Pink Game to benefit The Ali Kemp Educational Foundation. Reget was acquired via trade just yesterday and suited up for his new club in front of 3,877 fans at Cable Dahmer Arena Friday night. The Comets led this one wire to wire and improved their home record to 6-1-1. Their six home wins are tied for the most in the MASL this season.
It would have been hard to diagram a better first quarter for the Comets as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead after 15 minutes of play and it did not take long to get the scoring started. John Sosa chipped a Tropics defender with a pass to Lucas Sousa who went in 1v1 against Florida keeper Rainer Hauss and beat him for his 14th goal of the season with 13:31 still to go in the opening frame.
The second goal of the night proved the third time really is a charm as Milos Vucic found his own rebound on two consecutive shots and sent the third low just inside the far post for the 2-0 lead with 11:40 to go in the 1st.
Sosa used his second assist of the night to feed the ball to Leo Gibson who picked up his 11th goal of the season and it was 3-0 with just under five minutes to play in the opening quarter.
The fourth and final goal of the quarter started with a pinpoint pass from Ramone Palmer to Christian Anderaos who one-timed a shot with his left foot and sent a rocket to the back of the net to make it a 4-0 Kansas City lead heading to the second quarter.
Reget’s first goal of the game came via a shootout after Florida’s Chad Vandegriffe was booked for tripping. Reget took one touch and fired a rocket past Hauss to push the Comets’ lead to 5-0 with 11:13 to go in the half.
Florida had an answer and tallied two goals in under two minutes first from Ricardo Diegues and then Rafa Alves scored to make it 5-2 with just under three minutes left in the 2nd.
That proved to be enough time for the Comets to get another goal when Gibson initiated a restart from the right side. He slid a pass into the middle of the box and Sosa was on the end of it to make it a 6-2 lead for Kansas City at the break.
Reget, take two. His second goal was on yet another assist from Sosa off a restart from the top of the arc. Reget one-timed the shot from the right side and it was a 7-2 Comets lead midway through the 3rd quarter.
On the Comets’ next goal, Sousa’s second of the game on an assist from Sosa, Reget did not figure in the scoring, but he was right-place-right-time to screen Hauss and Kansas City went up by five at 8-2 with 2:09 remaining in the 3rd.
Less than 20 seconds later, Ricardo Carvalho intercepted a clearance pass from the Comets and found an empty net for the Tropics’ goal making it 8-3 in favor of the home team headed into the final quarter.
The teams combined for seven goals in the final 15 minutes, four on the Comets’ side of the scoreboard. Three of those came from the foot of Reget, two against the Florida 6th attacker formation, and the last one with just 25 seconds left in the game. The other Comets goal came courtesy of Sosa, who finished the night with a pair of goals to go with his three assists in the game.
The Comets and Tropics will now head to Lakeland, Florida where the teams will meet again on Sunday, February 19 before Kansas City returns for the Milwaukee Wave’s final Cable Dahmer Arena appearance on February 26th. Get your tickets as soon as you can for that game!
Tickets for that date and all Comets home games are available at www.kccomets.com/tickets.