Comets Remain Undefeated With Big Win over Cross-State Rivals

The Missouri Comets returned to the Silverstein Eye Centers Arena on Friday for the first of three games this season against their I-70 rivals, the St. Louis Ambush. This cross-state matchup has been dominated by the Comets since its rebirth in 2013. The Comets have won all 9 games in the series, including a three-game sweep last year.

This past offseason the Ambush traded for Gordy Gurson and signed Freddie Moojen to join former Rookie of the Year, Odaine Sinclair to try and catch the Comets. The effort looked like it might pay off early as the Ambush started the game in full attack mode. They controlled play early as they kept the ball in the Comets' defensive end for much of the early period.

When the Comets did wrestle the ball away from St. Louis, veteran captain Vahid Assadpour kept a level head as he and his teammates passed the ball from end-to-end looking for quality shots. Perseverance was key as Assadpour scored first, followed shortly by the first goal of the night from Max Touloutte. St. Louis' Lucas Almeida got his side on the board midway through the 2nd quarter and the half ended with the Comets holding onto a 2-1 lead.

Any confidence the Ambush might have gained from playing the Comets so close in the first half was quickly wiped out in the second half. It took all of 42 seconds for Ramone Palmer to score, then only 34 more seconds for Touloutte to notch goal number two of his night.Kevin TenEyck joined the goal party shortly after that.

After finishing the first half with a tight one-goal lead, the Comets jumped to a 5-1 lead in the first six minutes of the half. Moojen tried to slow the onslaught with a St. Louis goal shortly after TenEyck, but the Comets stormed back with goals from Ramone Palmer, Harris and Lucas Rodriguez before the quarter ended.

At halftime we were happy to only be down 2-1 but the first five minutes of the third quarter wasn't pretty though. When you let these guys get up on you three or four goals it is pretty much over. We've really got to look at the film and figure out what happened in the third quarter.  - Daryl Doran

They were playing good defense, we just had to find a way to penetrate. We knew that when the goals came it was going to rain so we just had to be patient. - Vahid Assadpour

Rookie Kentaro Takada scored his first MASL goal in the final quarter, but it was too little, too late for the Ambush. For the Comets, John Sosa added a restart goal and Touloutte finished off his hat trick to close out the 10-3 win for Missouri.

We played a good game, I'm very happy with the intensity and also the mentality of the players. Slowly but surely we are getting back to the Comets that we know. - Vlatko Andonovski

The Comets remain undefeated at 4-0 as they head to Chicago for a 7:05pm kickoff against the Mustangs. They enter that game looking to extend their 29-game regular season winning streak and their lead in the MASL's Central Division.