Comets set for regular season finale in Baltimore

by Nathan Dunn

Kansas City Comets @ Baltimore Blast

MASL Regular Season — Game 24

Saturday, March 30 — 2 p.m. CT

Where | TU Arena - Towson, MD

The No. 3 seed in the 2025 Ron Newman Cup Playoffs is on the line Sunday afternoon as the Kansas City Comets visit the Baltimore Blast for the final game of the regular season.

The Comets enter the final day of the regular season in third place with 46 points. On 45 points, Baltimore is fourth in the league, eager to slide into third place.

The stakes for Sunday’s contest are simple: the winner will take the No. 3 overall seed in the playoffs, while the loser will visit San Diego at the No. 4 seed.

For the Comets, a win Sunday in Baltimore sounds improbable. In five visits to TU Arena, they have never come out victorious and have lost seven straight against the Blast home or away.

The Comets will be without Leo Acosta (lower leg) and Henry Ramirez (lower leg) while Phillip Ejimadu (back) is doubtful. First-year midfielder Danny Malhue (illness) is questionable with Michael Lenis (lower leg) and Lucas Sousa (illness) probable.

Kansas City is coming from a momentum-building road victory, coming back from a three-goal deficit to defeat Utica City FC 7-6 in overtime. Stefan Mijatovic created the equalizer and Lucas Sousa was clinical on his shootout attempt to seal their largest comeback victory this season.

The month of March has not been one to remember for the Comets. They lost their eight-game winning streak and have gone 3-5-0, taking 8 of 24 points available.

While the team has had a rough stretch in March, it hasn’t been that way individually for Sousa. The Brazilian midfielder has finally gotten some action after injury issues and has scored in four straight games.

The offensive production has been subpar for much of the month, but it sparked back to life in the second half of Friday’s victory. Rian Marques, who has been dealing with injury issues and had previously scored once all month, scored twice to lead the comeback effort in the second half.

Losing five of their last seven, the Comets are hoping for consecutive victories for the first time since February. Doing so would dramatically shift momentum back in their favor heading into the playoffs as the 3 seed.

Sunday’s contest if the only KC-BAL meeting this season. The Comets are 4-7-0 all-time against the Blast in the MASL regular season.

The Opponent

Baltimore is looking to sweep in to take the No. 3 seed and head into the playoffs on a four-game winning streak.

Winners of three straight, the Blast are coming from a 9-1 victory against the Texas Outlaws. Baltimore scored seven straight in the first half before Bruno Henrique concluded his hat trick inside the first three quarters.

Henrique is among the leading scorers for Baltimore, but Juan Pereira and Chad Poarch are at the top of Baltimore’s scoring leaderboard. The duo have a combined 41 goals this season with Pereira averaging 1.8 points per game while Poarch has 1.4 per game.

Baltimore was a perfect 8-0-0 on home turf until the St. Louis Ambush came in and got a road victory on March 16. Since then, Baltimore has resumed its home dominance with wins over Utica City and Texas.

After Sunday’s game, the Comets will turn their attention to the Ron Newman Cup Playoffs. Their postseason journey will begin on Saturday, April 5, when they play their quarterfinal matchup against an opponent to be determined at Frontwave Arena in San Diego.