Comets drop short in overtime against Ambush

Two weeks after beating the St. Louis Ambush in regulation at home, the Kansas Ciy Comets suffered their second overtime defeat of the season by a score of 8-7 Sunday afternoon.

The Comets entered Sunday’s matchup without goalkeeper Mark Saxby, who served his third and final game of his suspension, in which he was able to do an MASL-M2 “loan” with the Wichita Wings in their opening two games of their inaugural M2 season at the Austin Power over the weekend, though Saxby did not play in either of Wichita’s two wins. Kansas City was also without Ramone Palmer, Nicolau Neto, and Lucas Sousa as they continue to deal with visa approval issues.

The Ambush also had missing players as Lucas Almeida, Axel Duarte, Ross MacGregor, and Felipe Silva all sat out through injury as former Comet Andre Braithwaite made his debut for St. Louis.

St. Louis came out firing in the first quarter with four goals scored from their newest signing Qudus Lawal, as well as two from Tony Walls, with another from Pepe Junqueira. Kiel Williams scored KC’s lone goal in the opening 15 minutes. Lucas Rodriguez and Leo Gibson got two goals early in the second quarter to bring the Comets within a goal at halftime.

Leo Gibson leveled things with a short-handed early in the third quarter. The Ambush responded with a second goal for Pepe Junqueira and another from Jonathan Pachar to give the Ambush the lead after three periods.

Leo Gibson cut the lead in half with a goal early in the fourth quarter, but Tony Walls scored his third shortly after to restore Ambush’s two goal advantage. Kansas City got back within one with a goal from Gui Gomes. The Comets tied it at 7-7 after John Sosa was credited with his third goal of the year to send the game to overtime.

Nearly six minutes into the overtime period, St. Louis forward JT Thomas found the sudden-death winner.

The Comets drop to 1-2 on the season while the Ambush got their first win of the season, improving to 1-3.

Leo Gibson had three terrific goals, but he really should have had more, missing several chances in the first half and a couple more in the second. With Saxby returning from suspension, Hamersky’s latest stint with the Comets is likely over. The Comets have scored 18 goals, which is one more than Ian Bennett and the Milwaukee Wave after both teams have played three games.

The Comets hit the road again next weekend when they visit Texas for meetings against the 1-1 Mesquite Outlaws on Saturday and the 0-4 Dallas Sidekicks on Sunday. Kansas City’s next home game is Saturday, December 28th against Danny Waltman and the Tacoma Stars.