Comets Top Knights

The Missouri Comets ended a 4 game losing streak and ended an extended road trip with a 17-9 win over the Syracuse Silver Knights at the Independence Events Center.  December as a whole hadn't been kind to the Comets, with 5 of their 7 games on the road.  They closed it out nicely though.

The Comets came out and pressured from the start and almost had a goal very early, but the ball was cleared off the line after getting through the Syracuse back line.  Only a few seconds later though the Comets did get on the board.  John Sosa picked out Mads Falck at the top of the box.  Falck fired the ball home to make it 2-0 Comets.  A few minutes later, the Comets doubled their lead, again through Falck.  Stefan St. Louis received the ball on a 2v1 break.  St. Louis unselfishly laid the ball off to Falck who scored his second of the night.  The Comets continued to pressure and just after the half way point of the quarter, the Comets added another goal.  A nice ball from Sosa found Byron Alvarez in the Knights half of the field.  Alvarez touched the ball over his defender, turned volleyed the ball into the net to make it 6-0 Comets.

In the second quarter, the Knights quickly got themselves back into the game.  Andriy Budnyy received a pass from Slavisa Ubiparapovic and beat Danny Waltman inside the first minute of the second quarter.  Just 3 minutes into the quarter the Knights pulled the game within one as Jamar Beasley buried a shot from 3 point range to make it 6-5.  The two teams held firm with the Knights having more of the play and went into the half 6-5.

Into the third quarter, the Knights took their first lead of the game off a restart.  Nelson Santana picked out Neto in the corner who beat Waltman up high to make it 7-6 Knights.  The Comets pushed the game looking to retake the lead.  Just over the half way point, the Comets got the lead back.  Brian Harris fired a shot on goal from long range, Alvarez stepped in front of the shot, let it run through his legs and back healed it over Brian O'Quinn in the Syracuse net to put the Comets back on top.  The lead lasted until late in the quarter, when Beasley scored his second goal of the game to put the Knights back on top 9-8.

In the fourth quarter the Comets jumped back in front early.  Falck and Alvarez led a break a little over a minute in.  Falck fed Alvarez who completed his hattrick and made it 10-9.  Just before the half way point of the half, Cristiano was sent to the penalty box for the second time in the game.  The Comets though were there ones that scored while he was in the box.  Vahid Assadpour and Ryan Junge made a break on a play.  Junge fed the ball to Assadpour, the Comets captain got O'Quinn to commit and passed the ball back to Junge who tapped the ball into the empty net to make it 12-9.  The Knights continued to push the game, needing only a 3 pointer to tie the game.  Eventually the Knights threw on an extra attacker looking to get their 3 pointer.  Missouri won the ball back though and Cristiano fired a shot from just outside his own yellow line.  The ball made it past the 6th attacker and into the empty net to make it 15-9.  The Knights inserted O'Quinn back into goal, but only a few seconds later the Comets had scored again.  Lucas Rodriguez won a ball in the Comets half of the field and fed Alvarez on the break.  Alvarez fired the ball over O'Quinn to make it 17-9.  The Comets played out the last minutes to get the win.

The real action though was at half time during the media game.  After the red team took a lead in the first minutes of the first half, the blue team peppered the red goal, but Dannyboi did quite well in the red net.  That continued in the second half, and finally with a minute left in the game, yours truly scored the game tying goal from the top of the penalty area to make it 2-2 at the end of the game.