Comets open season with I-70 Series victory

ST. CHARLES, MO - The Kansas City Comets took the first step towards retaining the I-70 Series Cup with a 7-3 season-opening victory against the St. Louis Ambush on Friday, Nov. 28.

It was not pretty at times, but the Comets put on a winning display engineered by highlight-reel goals, 14 saves by Phillip Ejimadu and numerous goal-saving blocks by Comets defenders. The Comets extended their Black Friday tradition, extending their Thanksgiving celebrations an extra day for the second straight year and keeping the Ambush to just three goals.

Lesia Thetsane topped the defensive heroes on Friday evening with six blocks on defense, but he also started the scoring with a wallascora just 67 seconds into the 2025-26 MASL season. Zach Reget got on the end of a long ball in the corner, smashing it off the boards to find Thetsane for a left-footed volley near the penalty spot.

The Ambush found an equalizer later in the corner, but Christian Anderaos opened his account for the season by smashing a long toss from Ejimadu into the top corner, providing the Comets with a 2-1 lead and giving Ejimadu the sixth assist of his career. The Ambush answered once more as Daniel Torrealba scored the first score in an Ambush uniform to tie it up 2-2 at the end of the first quarter.

Things turned sour for the Comets 32 seconds into the second quarter when Leo Acosta was ejected for an elbow. With neither team finding an edge, the Comets finally found the go-ahead strike from Jacob Garza, scoring the first goal of his career inside the final two minutes of the half, before Lucas Sousa found Anderaos on another wallascora to give KC the 4-2 advantage going into halftime.

The Comets’ defense came up big in the third quarter as the Ambush pushed for an equalizer, outshooting the Comets 5-3. A quartet of Comets defenders, including Thetsane, Chad Vandegriffe, Nacho Flores and Guerrero Pino, each recorded a block to keep the Comets ahead by two scores.

Zach Reget added to the Comets’ lead less than five minutes into the fourth quarter, finding the corner on a Henry Ramirez assist. The AMbush pulled one back in the final five minutes, but the Comets answered with two more scores as Dominic Francis scored his first as a Comet since 2021 from the penalty spot and Reget scored another on the power play inside the final minute.

The Comets’ 7-3 victory was their 10th opening night victory in 16 years, moving to 4-1 on opening night’s against the Ambush. Despite being outshot 33-23 on the night, the Comets were more efficient offensively by scoring on more than 30% of their shots.

Reget and Anderaos each concluded with three points, as the duo scored twice and assisted once. The defensive efforts of Thetsane and Vandegriffe combined for 10 of the team’s 16 total blocks.

The Comets return home with the first three points of the season, hoping to make it six points on Saturday night. The Comets host Game 2 of the series on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. inside Cable Dahmer Arena. Get your tickets at kccomets.com/tickets.