COMETS CLINCH PLAYOFF SPOT IN SAN DIEGO

OCEANSIDE, Ca. — The Kansas City Comets have qualified for the Ron Newman Cup Playoffs after leading wire-to-wire in an 8-6 road win against the San Diego Sockers on Sunday evening.

After entering the week facing a daunting home-and-home slate against the league-leading Sockers, the Comets took 4 of 6 points available to secure a spot in the RNC Playoffs for the 10th time since 2015. After taking a point in an overtime defeat on Saturday at home, the Comets responded brilliantly to take all three points and storm past the Sockers at Frontwave Arena.

Sunday’s effort was led by a strong offensive outburst against one of the league’s top defenses backed by former Comet goalkeeper Boris Pardo, who was among the league-leaders with 5.05 goals against per game. Rian Marques registered a 5-point performance to reestablish himself as the MASL’s points leader (44 points).

Marques got the Comets off on the right foot by forcing a turnover before scoring, which was followed by Zach Reget’s score off a wallascora feed from Chase Peterson to make it 2-0. The Sockers pulled one back right before the end of the opening frame as Tavoy Morgan made it 2-1 inside the final second.

The Comets added to their lead in the second quarter, though they worked hard in doing so after killing off a penalty early in the frame. Lucas Sousa scored his first of the season before San Diego’s Sebastian Mendez scored on the Sockers’ second power play. David Stankovic delivered another cushion for the Comets to put them ahead 4-2 with a tremendous solo effort with 4:15 left in the half.

The Comets were opportunistic in the third period after capitalizing on both power play chances. DeBray Hollimon scored the opener of the second frame, his first of the season, before Marques and Nacho Flores each scored on the power play to give the Comets a 7-2 lead with 5:02 left in the third.

While the Sockers pulled one back, Marques completed his fifth hat trick of the season after placing a restart into the top corner. The Sockers’ efforts with the sixth attacker proved to be too little, too late as they managed to cut their five-goal deficit down to two in the final moments.

Sunday’s road victory moved the Comets into fourth place in the MASL standings, moving within three points of a top-two spot for a first-round bye. They now sit at 11-6-4 entering the final two weeks of the regular season with three games remaining.

The Comets will aim to continue building some momentum as they return home next Saturday, March 21, to renew a rivalry with the Baltimore Blast on Mascot Night. Tickets for next Saturday’s highly anticipated penultimate home game of the regular season are available at kccomets.com/tickets.

Attendance - 3,002