COMETS SET FOR AFTERNOON MATCH AGAINST THE TROPICS

KANSAS CITY (Jan 30, 2019) -- The Kansas City Comets (6-5) will look to defend their home turf against the Florida Tropics for the second time this season.

COMETS vs TROPICS GAME NOTES

The Tropics are currently fifth in the South Central division with four wins and seven losses, but not too far behind fourth place Orlando. Kansas City has won five of their past six games and sits only three games back of first place Milwaukee Wave, they are one game up on third place St Louis Ambush.

This is the second time this season for these two teams to get together. The Comets hosted the Tropics at the beginning on January 6 and garnered their first home victory, 7-2.

Kansas City’s defensive efforts were able to hold Florida to just two goals, both coming in the second quarter. This is the least amount of goals that an opposing team has scored against the Comets thus far this year. Freddy Moojen and Ricardo Diegues were the only goal scorers. Moojen has since been traded to Utica City.

In exchange for Moojen, the Tropics received former Comets forward Andre Braithwaite. Having played three seasons with the Comets previously, this will be Braithwaite’s first time back at the Silverstein Eye Centers Arena since he was dealt to Utica . Since the last meeting, Florida also acquired midfielder Antonio Manfut, who previously played for St. Louis Ambush and has five goals and three assists this season, but only one goal in three attempts against the Comets.

Bryan Perez had a big night against Florida with two goals (both assisted by Kiel Williams) and one assist. Leo Gibson and Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Flores also added to the team’s success with one goal and one assist each. Gibson continues to lead the MASL in points (33) and assists (18).

Overall Kansas City is 4-2 against Florida since their first meeting in 2016. Strong offensive efforts from Lucas Rodriguez (9 goals, 6 assists) and Bryan Perez (9 goals, 5 assists) will be key in obtaining victory. Perez is 1 point away from 250 career points and Rodriguez is two goals from 100 career goals.

Another beneficial asset to the Comet’s success is their ability to score power play goals. Currently, the team is first in the MASL with 13 power play goals and a .619 power play percent. Four of the 13 goals come from defender James Togbah, who has eight total goals for the 2018-2019 season.

Kansas City won their last two matches, both at home, and looks to continue the streak Saturday.

The match will kick off at 1:05 p.m. CT Saturday afternoon with the game will televised live on Eleven Sports, the first of a new MASL partnership this season. Fans can follow along with the Comets on twitter (@KCComets) and Facebook (Kansas City Comets). Tickets are available online at Ticketmaster.com and KCComets.com