Comets Seven Goal Outburst in Second Half Buries Knights

by Ed Bishop

A tight, see-saw contest through the first two quarters turned into a blowout victory for the Missouri Comets as they downed the Syracuse Silver Knights 23-10 on Sunday afternoon at the Independence Events Center. The lead changed hands four times during the first half of a very physical and often chippy contest and the Knights actually took a one point lead early in the third quarter before the Comets unleashed seven unanswered goals on the expansion Syracuse squad to send them on the long drive home with their fifth straight loss.

Syracuse defender Jeffrey Hughes opened the scoring for the Silver Knights with the first of his two goals on the day less than 3 minutes into the game. Comets defender Ryan Junge, who also had a brace on the day, answered just over a half minute later when he launched a restart from the three point arc past Syracuse keeper Eric Reed to put Missouri ahead. Fellow defender Brian Harris would score the first of his pair on the day from Vahid Assadpour at 10:28 and the Comets appeared off and running. However the Knights Nelson Santana jumped out of the penalty box late in the first after a kicking penalty, stripped the ball away while back checking on defense and then took it coast-to-coast to beat Comets keeper Danny Waltman and trim Missouri's lead to 5-4 at the end of the first quarter.

Hughes picked up his second goal almost five minutes into the second quarter as Syracuse briefly regained the lead. Lucas Rodriguez and Neto then struck 42 seconds apart midway through the period to put the Comets up 9 - 6, however Slavisa Ubiparapovic potted a goal at 12:25 and the Comets lead was cut to 9 - 8 heading to halftime.

Danny Waltman distributes the ball after stopping a shot.

Three minutes into the second half the Knights regained the lead on a goal by forward Andriy Budnyy, but it would be the last score by Syracuse in the game and less than 3 minutes later Leo Gibson would give the Comets the lead for good as he banged home his own rebound. Geison, second in the MISL in scoring, then converted a John Sosa assist less than two minutes later and midway through the third 13 - 9. Less than a minute after Geison's goal Hughes picked up a boarding penalty as the physical play escalated and the Comets made the Knights pay just 16 seconds into the power play as Byron Alvarez scored the first of his two on the day with an assist to Rodriguez and by the end of the third quarter the Comets were ahead 15 - 9 and appeared to be taking control.


Just over a minute into the fourth quarter the Knights had a chance to get back into the game when Assadpour of the Comets took a pushing penalty but Comets defender Brian Harris scored the team's league leading third short-handed goal of the season unassisted and ended any thoughts of a Syracuse comeback. Junge then picked up his second of the game at 7:53 and was immediately followed by Rodriguez's second goal at 8:36. Alvarez then closed out the scoring with Missouri's fourth goal of the quarter and his second of the game at 10:19.

With the victory the Comets improved to 5 wins and 3 losses and keeps them a game and a half behind the undefeated Milwaukee Wave. After winning their first three games the Silver Knights have now lost five straight and now find themselves in third place three games back of the division leading Baltimore Blast.

Comet Tales: Forward Byron Alvarez was fouled hard along the boards in front of the Comets bench late in the fourth quarter and his left arm was in a sling after the game. He said he expected to go in for X-rays on Monday...The Comets will spend the next several weeks on the road and play four road games against Eastern Division opponents before returning home to play the Wichita Wings on December 28th. Media from all over the KC Metro area will be invited to see if they can play better than the pros in a halftime Media Game... The Comets accepted donations to Toys for Tots and auctioned off their special black and camouflage jerseys after the game with fans placing over $5,000 in winning bids and a portion of those proceeds going to Toys for Tots as well... Geison (2nd), Byron Alvarez (4th) and Vahid Assadpour (5th) are in the MISL's top 5 in scoring... The Comets are tied with Blast for the league lead in power play efficiency at 50% (7 for 14)...