Comets Run Past Ambush

The Kansas City Comets ended their three game home stand to start the season with an 8-3 win over the St. Louis Ambush on Sunday evening. The Ambush, playing their first game of the season looked a bit rusty in the first half, similar to how the Comets looked against the Cedar Rapids Rampage in their opener. While the Ambush have played some preseason games, the Comets having two real games under their belt already certainly seemed to give them an advantage in the early going.

The Comets got the first goal of the game from a very unlikely source as about eight minutes in as goalkeeper Stephen Paterson took a lot of space that the Ambush defense gave him on a line change. Paterson raced almost to the Ambush yellow line before firing a shot low to the far post that Ambush goalkeeper Nikola Marojevic didn't even dive for. The shot bounced into the corner of the net giving the Comets a 1-0 lead. While the goal was impressive coming from a goalkeeper, Marojevic not even making an attempt to make a dive on the play looked bad for the St. Louis goalkeeper. The goal ended up being the only one of the first quarter as the Comets dominated but some good saves by Marojevic kept the lead to just a single goal.

It didn't take long for the Comets to extend their lead in the second quarter as some high pressure by the Comets led to a give away by Marojevic as he played a ball right to Guerrero Pino who fired a shot into the net to double the lead less than two minutes into the quarter. KC made it 3-0 five and a half minutes in after some good passing around the yellow line led to Alain Matingou playing a ball to the back post where Ramone Palmer was lurking to tap the ball home. The rout appeared to be on, but less than a minute later the Ambush were on the board with Stefan St. Louis scoring his first goal of the season. The Comets restored their three goal lead before half time as Vahid Assadpour scored after sending Marojevic sliding by with a fake shot and passing the ball into the empty net as the Comets went into the half up 4-1.

The Ambush came out after the half time break and looked to have woken up and were ready to play. They seemed to have gotten their feet under them and were able to create chances, especially on the counter were Richard Schmermund beat Paterson almost seven minutes into the quarter to cut the Comets lead back to two goals. Kansas City though responded again with Bryan Perez scuffing a shot into the far corner after a centering pass by Leo Gibson to make it 5-2. Before the end of the quarter Schmermund had cut the lead back to just two goals blasting a shot past Paterson to make it 5-3 after three quarters.

The fourth quarter saw the Comets pull away from the Ambush scoring three times while keeping the Ambush from cutting the lead any further. Less than two minutes into the quarter, Gibson set up Lucas Rodriguez to extend the lead back to three goals. Just over five minutes in the Comets made the lead four goals as Brian Harris scored to make it 7-3. With less than four minutes left, the Comets finished off their scoring, almost seeming to toy with the Ambush defense as a pair of Comets passed up shooting opportunities before Gibson picked up his third assist of the game playing a ball across the goal to an on-rushing Robert Palmer who fired a shot in off the post and the head of a St. Louis defender to finish the game.

The Comets will now go on the road for the first time this season next weekend when they'll take on the Milwaukee Wave, who split their East Coast road trip 1-1, defeating Baltimore but losing to Harrisburg.