Comets Win Showdown with Baltimore

The Missouri Comets came back from a three week break to welcome the Baltimore Blast to the Silverstein Eye Centers for the first of three games in the final six for the Comets against the MASL finalist. For the first time since the infamous headbutting situation in last year's playoffs the two teams met. This time there was no physical altercation, just a good indoor soccer game. The Comets and the Blast fought in a back and forth intense game.

The first quarter was tight between the two teams with both goalkeepers being called upon to make big saves to keep the game scoreless. Under a minute left in the quarter though the scoring started. First Lucas Roque scored with 43 seconds left in the quarter to give the Blast the lead. The Comets though responded before the end of the quarter as Lucas Rodriguez scored off a restart with less than a second remaining to end the quarter with the two teams tied at 1-1.

Early in the second quarter Adriano Dos Santos took advantage of a power play opportunity and restored the Blast's lead before two minutes of the second quarter had been played. Once again though the Comets responded before five minutes had been played as Keil Willams jumped on a rebound after he and Leo Gibson had a few efforts in front of goal. With William Vanzela a little out of position, Williams was able to knock the ball into the net to make it 2-2. With less than five minutes left in the quarter the Comets grabbed their first lead of the game as Ramone Palmer set up the club's captain, Vahid Assadpour who made it 3-2.

The third quarter kept the game tight as the Blast tied the game with just over five minutes played as Roque scored his second goal of the game to knot the game at three all. Just under three minutes later, near the midpoint of the half the Comets retook the lead as Gibson scored to put the Comets back on top 4-3. The Blast once again fought back though and tied the game as Onua Obasi fired a shot off the inside of the far post and into the net to level the game at 4-4.

Into the fourth the Comets found themselves having to kill another penalty after a boarding penalty on John Sosa. The Comets were able to kill the penalty and shortly after had a power play of their own. The Comets took advantage of the man advantage as Lucas Rodriguez set up Bryan Perez with a nice pass to put the Comets up 5-4. The Blast pushed the game trying to once again find an equalizer but couldn't, after puling their goalkeeper and going with the sixth attacker. With under a minute left the Comets were able to extend the lead to 6-4 as Rodriguez found the back of the net to give the Comets the win.