Comets Lose Again

The Comets opened the scoring tonight against the Baltimore Blast, but from there it went down hill. An early 2 minute tripping penalty on Pat Healey gave MO the chance to grab the early lead as Birche fed Bryon Alvarez who scored to give MO their only lead of the game. Shortly after MO's goal, Healey atoned a bit as he scored off an assist from Worteh Sampson. Sampson stole the ball off of Leo Gibson as he played with the ball too much in front of goal. Sampson again set up the second goal for Baltimore, feeding Max Ferdinand who beat Boris Pardo to make it 4-2. Robbie Aristodemo made it 6-2 when Machel Millwood found him at the top of the box. And just 11 minutes into the first quarter, Millwood scored his first goal to make it 8-2 finishing off a pass from Ferdinand at the back post. The Comets cut into the lead late in the first quarter as Gibson found Jamar Beasley at the back post for a tap in for him to make it 8-4 after 1 quarter.

In the second quarter Missouri stepped up the defense and bit and controlled more of the game, but at times it also seemed that Baltimore was just playing with the Comets at times that they could just turn their game on and blow by the Comets completely. Late in the second quarter the Blast did turn it on. On a fast break, Lucio Gonzaga directed the play and then found Millwood who beat Pardo to make it 10-4. Another give away, this time by Shahryar Dastan led to another goal. Dastan gave the ball away to Healey who dribbled towards the box. Pardo committed himself coming out to try to stop the play but Healey got the shot off before Pardo could get there making it 12-4. Gonzaga made it 14-4 a minute and a half after Healey's second of the game. Pardo made a few good saves to keep MO in the game, but it wasn't enough as the 14-4 lead stood into halftime.

Pardo continued to make a few good saves in the 3rd quarter, but the offense sputtered as they didn't produce many good chances. The only goal came fairly early in the half, as Healey finished off his hattrick with Millwood again assisting on the goal making it 16-4. In the fourth quarter things continued to spiral out of control and started early. Off the kick off Dastan received the ball and decided for some reason it'd be good to play a looping ball to Pardo. The pass though, while ill-advised considering it was played in the air was also off the mark, Pardo was unable to get to the ball and Sampson raced onto it and put it away to make it 18-4 with less than 10 seconds gone in the 4th. MO had a few chances to get closer on power plays, but it ended up being Baltimore increasing their twice scoring short handed goals, the first after Millwood collected the ball deep in the corner and was able to get the ball to Healey in the middle of the box for the former SKC Wizards' draft pick his fourth goal of the game. Then late in the half after Healey had picked up a second blue card for pushing this time, Mike Lookinghand collected a ball in the corner for the Blast and fired a shot that went into the far corner making it 22-4. MO did get one more goal, on the same power play. Birche fired a 3 point shot that deflected off of Gibson and past Sagu in the net for the Blast to give the Comets one more goal.

This team's defense is poor. Pardo didn't have a great game in his first start for the Comets but he got no help from his defense. At least 3-4 of the goals were the fault of defensive miscues. On top of that, the defense isn't exactly a strong part for MO anyways. The offense isn't much better either, as while the Comets can get possession and hold the ball in the offensive third their ability to get shots off and even their shot selection is poor as the losses continue to rack up for MO. At this time it's hard to see a turn around for the Comets this season.