KANSAS CITY COMETS
COMETS DEFEAT THE HEAT
Carlos Trombini scores game-winner in final four minutes
KANSAS CITY (February 17, 2018) – The Kansas City Comets earned their sixth win of the season on Saturday afternoon against the Harrisburg Heat. Anthony Grant had two goals and an assist to lead all scorers and Carlos Trombini scored the game-winning goal with under four minutes to play, giving the Comets an 8-7 victory at home.
The Comets came into the match as the aggressors. Forward Adam James was especially active as he attacked the Heat defense, forcing turnovers that led to goals for James Togbah, Pat Kelly and Grant. Harrisburg’s Ricardo Carvalho interrupted the Comets scoring streak with a goal for the Heat in the eighth minute of the 1st quarter, but Grant was credited for his second goal a minute later to give the Comets a 4-1 lead.
Harrisburg’s Lucio Gonzaga scored in the final minutes of the quarter off an assist from Carvalho. He then returned the favor and assisted on Carvalho’s score with ten seconds remaining in the quarter to cut the Comets opening lead to 4-3.
Neither side could gain a foothold in the second quarter. Both goalkeepers, Mark Saxby in his second start for the Comets and Ryan Sipe in his first start for the Heat, saw plenty of action and made some great saves. Harrisburg’s Val Teixeira got the only goal of the period as the Comets and Heat went into halftime tied at 4-4.
Harrisburg’s Thiago Freitas scored the opening and closing goals of the third period. In between, the Comets got goals from Nacho Flores and Leo Gibson, but Carvalho’s third goal of the night behind 7-6 as they entered the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Comets held much of the possession. With a little over four minutes remaining Lucas Rodriguez scored the equalizing goal off a Kiel Williams assist.
With momentum fully at their back, Kansas City pressed hard on the Heat defense. With just over three minutes remaining, Gibson was taken down at the top of the Heat’s penalty box and the Comets were awarded with a free kick.
As Kansas City set up for the restart, they flooded the right side of the box with James Togbah on the right goal post while Rodriguez and Trombini floated wide. Leo Gibson and Bryan Perez lined up to the left of the ball and both approached the ball as if to kick it. At the last moment, Perez broke off and Gibson laid an easy pass to Trombini who simply had to keep it on the ground and into the back of the net.
Kansas City’s win moves them to 6-12 on the year as they get set for a three-game road trip. The team will head south to Hermosillo, Mexico next Saturday, February 24th and then El Paso, Texas February 25th before closing out their road schedule on March 2nd against the Tacoma Stars. All of those games can be seen live on the Comets website, KCComets.com/live-feed.
The team will close out the 2017-2018 season at home on March 4th against the Florida Tropics at 5:05 p.m. CT. Comets’ mascot, Calvin, will also be hosting the Annual Mascot Game at halftime. Fans are treated to an exciting exhibition between Calvin and his Mascot friends in one of the craziest displays of soccer around.
Tickets for the March 4th game can be purchased here