Orlando SeaWolves fall to Kansas City Comets
Orlando SeaWolves lost ground in their chase to make the MASL play offs as they lost 9-7 to Kansas City Comets in an entertaining match at Silver Spurs Arena, Kissimmee on Saturday night.
The Comets started the brighter of the two sides and their captain Bryan Perez opened the scoring some three minutes into the opening quarter. Former Comet and current SeaWolves forward Elmo Neto then grabbed a goal midway through the quarter to level things up but the Comets then pressed the gas pedal to extend their lead. Anthony Grant and Leo Gibson scored for the visitors before Drou Goff (pictured above) scored his first ever MASL goal to pull one back for the SeaWolves to close the period and give the Comets a 3-2 lead.
Worse was to come in the second quarter for the home side as defender Joshio Sandoval was sent off for appearing to bite an opponent as Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Flores and James Togbah added further goals for Kansas City to open up a three-goal lead to make it 5-2 by halftime.
The visitors set out to put the game away early in the second half and following a SeaWolves foul, defender Kevin Ellis quickly restarted the play with a pass to Bryan Perez who slipped the ball to a wide-open Grant who turned the ball home. The SeaWolves weren’t done though and with 10 mins of the third quarter to go Luiz Mota fired home off the far post to make it 6-3.
Two minutes later it was 7-3 as Togbah managed to slot the ball home for his league leading seventh power play goal. A minute after that strike Gordy Gurson pulled a goal back to make it 7-4 but the Comets again caught the SeaWolves napping as Robert Palmer was allowed to run three quarters of the field without challenge. The defender then played a short pass to Ellis who in turn rolled the ball to Grant to complete his hat-trick with less than a minute remaining of the quarter.
Mario Alvarez then gave Orlando some hope of a come back as he scored two minutes into the final quarter and when the midfielder fired home a superbly struck volley with five minutes to go to make it 8-6, the home crowd started to get excited.
It was short lived though as within a minute, more defensive woes saw Comets veteran Leo Gibson put the game beyond all doubt as he made it 9-6 to the visitors with a right footed tap in. Gurson completed his own hat-trick to reduce the deficit with 90 seconds to go but it was too little too late and the Comets took a deserved 9-7 victory.
Full Time : Orlando SeaWolves 7 Kansas City Comets 9
Orlando SeaWolves next game is next weekend on Friday 22nd March as they play Baltimore Blast at 7.30pm. They then take on Harrisburg Heat a day later on Saturday 23rd at 7.05pm.
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