COMETS SET TO FACE FURY IN SEMI-FINALS

With the Florida Tropics selecting the San Diego Sockers as their Semi-Final round opponent for the 2021 Ron Newman Cup Playoffs, the Comets are set up with series with the Ontario Fury. All games of the Semi-Finals will take place at Cable Dahmer Arena with Game 1 on Thursday April 1 and Game 2 on Saturday April 3. Kansas City and Ontario will play at 7:05 pm CT both days.  

The Comets advanced to the Semi-Final round by sweeping the St. Louis Ambush 2-0 in a series which was close and very entertaining for fans. Kansas City owner Brian Budzinski acknowledged the Ambush and their first-round battle when he said “(we) want to commend Shelly Clark, Jeff Locker & Hewerton (Moreira) on a hard-fought series with the St. Louis Ambush. It was great to have all the rival fans attend both road games.”

Kansas City’s Semi-Final opponent, the Fury, also advanced with a first-round sweep, theirs coming over a Dallas Sidekicks team which pushed the Fury defense all series long.

The Comets and Fury did meet once during the regular season, resulting in a 7-6 Kansas City victory at Cable Dahmer Arena on March 7. The Comets trailed that game by a 5-1 margin at half time, and by three goals at 6-3 to begin the final quarter. Kansas City rallied for four consecutive fourth quarter goals to get the win.

Lucas Sousa got the game-tying goal with 2:59 left and followed that up with the game-winning goal with 1:41 remaining. He also assisted on Mike DaSilva’s goal which brought the Comets within one goal in the fourth. Sousa’a first goal of his hat-trick performance came in the third quarter.

Kansas City also got goals from Ramone Palmer, Ray Lee, and Leo Gibson in the win. For Ontario, it was a pair of goals from Maicon De Abreu and Nestor Hernandez, and one each from Robert Palmer and Juan Topete. The Fury, however, have plenty additional players who are threats to score.

That was one of the keys Budzinski touched on when looking ahead to the series.

“The Ontario Fury has some of the best finishers in our league. They can score in multiple ways while providing a very strong defense. We will need to stay very disciplined and focused against such a talented roster” he said.

The winner of this series will advance to the Ron Newman Cup Finals and face either the Florida Tropics or San Diego Sockers on April 9 and 11.

Tickets for the Semi-Finals are available through Ticketmaster, or by calling (888) 9-COMETS. Fans who can not make it in person will be able to watch live at https://www.facebook.com/MASLsoccer/events.