Comets Drop Game 1 to Blast

The Kansas City Comets suffered their largest defeat of the season as they lost to the Baltimore Blast by a final score of 9-2 on the road Friday evening.

The Comets are now 1-9 away from home this season and were stunted by Blast goalkeeper William Vanzela, who made 31 saves in addition to scoring a goal against the sixth attacker. Offensively, Baltimore’s Tony Donatelli was a handful with a goal and four assists.

The Comets started well but were unable to find the opener after Donatelli steered in a powerplay goal midway through the first quarter.

The Blast went up 2-0 when Patrick Thompson placed a left-footed volley after receiving a pass off the glass from Donatelli.

The Comets pulled one back with 7:53 remaining in the second quarter when Nacho Flores fired his seventh goal of the season into the corner from a restart assisted by John Sosa.

Baltimore responded with three more goals with Moises Gonzalez, Jamie Thomas and Jereme Raley each getting on the scoresheet in a two-minute span to take a 5-1 lead shortly before halftime.

After the Comets failed to convert on two powerplays, the Blast continued their scoring streak when Jonatas Melo scored twice to make it 7-1.

The Comets finally ended Baltimore’s streak of five straight goals 10:18 into the third quarter when Ramone Palmer picked up a loose ball in the right corner before finding Rian Marques in the middle of the box to make it 7-2.

Baltimore made it 8-2 when Thomas fired in his second of the contest. Baltimore goalkeeper William Vanzela poured salt into the wounds when he tossed in his first goal of the season against the Comets sixth attacker to make it 9-2 in the final minutes of the game.

The Comets remain in fourth place in the Eastern Division while the Blast move three points clear in third place.

“It's a really tough loss,” said Comets assistant coach Stefan Stokic. “We underperformed. We should have done better. This one is a really, really tough loss for us.”

The Comets scored just twice on 43 shots while the Blast scored nine times on just 24 shots. Things really started to unravel in the second quarter when the Comets conceded three goals in a two-minute span.

“A lot of little things went wrong,” Stokic said. “Our decision-making wasn’t there. Our quality wasn’t there with the ball. Our touches were not good enough. Our finishing, our energy, there were a lot of things that were off tonight.”

Both sides meet again on Saturday, March 11, at Cable Dahmer Arena for Mascot Night. Tickets for that matchup are available at www.kccomets.com.

SCORING SUMMARY

1st – BAL Donatelli (Melo) 8:51; BAL Thompson (Donatelli) 11:51. Penalties — KC Neto (bc- GK handball outside the box) 7:39.

2nd – KC Flores (Sosa) 7:07; BAL Gonzalez (Donatelli) 10:01; BAL Thomas (Donatelli) 11:50; BAL Raley (12:01). Penalties — KC Reget (bc- holding) 9:43; BAL Obasie (bc- Two-footed tackle) 13:32.

3rd – BAL Melo (Roque) 4:34; BAL Melo (Donatelli) 6:31; KC Marques (Palmer) 10:18. Penalties — BAL Sobreira (bc- tripping) 2:18; KC Sosa (bc- tripping) 5:32.

4th – BAL Thomas (Roque) 4:12; BAL Vanzela 11:28. Penalties — None.

Power Play – Comets 0/2, Baltimore 3/4

Penalty Minutes – Comets 8, Baltimore 4

Fouls – Comets 15, Baltimore 14

Shots – Comets 43, Balimore 24

Attendance – 2,218