COMETS TOP AMBUSH 4-2 TO SPLIT I-70 SERIES

by Pete Richmire

INDEPENDENCE, MO. – The Comets (1-0-1) and Ambush (1-1-0) finished their I-70 Series with another tightly played contest Saturday at Cable Dahmer Arena with Kansas City picking up a 4-2 win in front of 4,131 fans. John Sosa led all scorers with three points in the game on a goal and two assists and for the second consecutive game, the Comets decidedly outshot St. Louis, this time by a 36-19 margin.

Neither team scored in the opening quarter last night, but the Comets struck for a pair of goals in the first 15 minutes of play tonight. The first came when Lesia Thetsane sent a pass into the right corner where James Togbah was waiting. Togbah made a move to his left and beat Ambush keeper Mark Baker with a left-footed shot to put the Comets up 1-0 with 9:00 to go in the quarter.

Kansas City was on the powerplay with less than a minute remaining in the first and Baker threw the ball out of bounds from inside the box setting up a restart for the Comets at the top of the arc with two seconds left in the frame. Sosa buried the ball in the top of the net to put the Comets up 2-0 headed to the second quarter of play.

The teams played even for the majority of the second quarter but with 2:08 to go in the half, St. Louis got their first great opportunity of the night. Comets keeper Nicolau Neto was shown a blue card for a handball outside of the box setting up an Ambush shootout. After a great save stopped that chance, St. Louis went on the powerplay, and Kevin Ellis cut the Kansas City lead in half at 2-1 with 1:55 to go until the break.

After a scoreless third quarter, the game heated up considerably in the final frame. Kansas City had a powerplay opportunity which had just expired when Sosa sent a wall-pass to Leo Gibson who was diving to his left with the Ambush keeper doing the same. Gibson caught enough of the ball with his right foot and scored to put the Comets up 3-1 with 2:36 left in the game.

The Ambush pulled Baker in favor of their sixth attacker and Sosa’s second assist of the night found Lesia Thetsane who sailed a shot into an empty net from the Comets’ defensive side of midfield. The Comets led 4-1 with just 1:16 to play.

Following a blue card to Neto, his second of the game, Ellis scored on a penalty kick for his second goal of the night and to reach the 4-2 final score.

Neto, who stopped 11 of the 13 shots he faced, believes the Comets’ game plan worked well tonight. He said, “We knew what we needed to do in front of our home crowd, and we just stuck to the plan and it worked. There was no way that St. Louis was going to outwork us.”

Gibson agreed with Neto saying, “We knew we had to win today, so we tried to do everything we could to make sure that happened.”

The Comets will go on the road to Texas to face the Mesquite Outlaws on December 10 before returning home to square off against the Milwaukee Wave on the very next night. The December 11 contest will kick off at 4:05 pm CST. Tickets are available at www.kccomets.com/tickets.

SCORING SUMMARY

1st – KC Togbah (Thetsane) 6:03; KC Sosa 14:59 pp. Penalties – STL Eskay (bc- holding) 14:17.

2nd – STL Ellis (Almeida) 13:05. Penalties – KC Neto (bc- GK handball outside the box) 12:52; KC Da-Silva (yc- dissent) 13:03.

3rd – None. Penalties – None.

4th – KC Gibson (Sosa) 12:24; KC Thetsane (Sosa) 14:44 vs 6th attacker; STL Ellis 14:19 pk. Penalties – STL Kristo (bc- contact above the shoulder/elbow) 10:16; KC Neto (bc- tripping) 14:19.


Power Play – Comets 1/2, St. Louis 2/2

Penalty Minutes – Comets 9, St. Louis 4

Shots – Comets 36, St. Louis 19

Attendance – 4,131