STARS FIND OFFENSIVE GROOVE TO POWER PAST ONTARIO 11-6
Kent, WA- The Tacoma Stars (4-6) came back from the Holiday break firing on all cylinders as they easily defeated the visiting Ontario Fury (5-5) 11-6 at the Accesso ShoWare Center. The win pulls the Stars within one game behind Ontario in the MASL Pacific Division.
Ontario opened scoring in the first quarter when Maicon De Abreau beat Stars keeper Danny Waltman to put the Fury up 1-0 early. The Stars answered less than two minutes later when Nick Perera picked up his first goal as a Tacoma Star to level the game at one. The Fury would close the quarter on the power play when Philip Lund was issued a blue card with 0:26 seconds left to play.
The Fury went back in front 2-1 on a power play goal from Thiago Goncalves with 11 seconds left on Lund’s penalty. Ontario scored on their 5th shot of a possession off the leg of Israel Sesay with 11:24 left in the first half to make it a two-goal lead over Tacoma 3-1. Tacoma took control from there.
15 seconds after Sesay’s goal Chase Hanson buried a pass from Troy Peterson to bring the Stars within one. Ontario’s De Abreau was booked with a yellow and blue card after delivering an elbow to Lund. The Stars made him pay with a power play goal from Raphael Cox with 7:12 left in the half.
The Stars made it a 4-3 half time lead on Jamael Cox’s goal with just over four minutes to play. Perera picked up a blue card for Tacoma with 2:26 left but Stars penalty killers held Ontario off the board.
The third quarter was all Stars by picking up five goals in that quarter alone. Jamael Cox notched his second of the night for a 5-3 lead. That was followed by Raphael Cox’s second to put the Stars up by three. The Fury was issued a blue card with 8:58 left and Ontario scored an own-goal which was credited to Perera.
Tacoma scored two goals just 32 seconds apart when Peterson banged one home with 3:02 on the clock followed by Joey Gjertsen’s marker to close out third quart scoring.
Ontario made things interesting in the final quarter scoring three unanswered goals. First from Leonardo De Oliveira and then Juan Gonzalez to make it a 9-5 Tacoma lead. A Tacoma blue card to Raphael Cox led to an Ontario power play goal by De Oliveira with 5:51 left in the game.
It took the Stars just 11 seconds to answer on a goal by Alain Matingou. The final goal of the night came off the foot of Lund who knocked it in from three quarters of the field away to make the score 11-6 with 3:53 remaining.
The two teams will complete the back end of this home and home series on Thursday January 11 in Ontario. The Stars head further south to face the San Diego Sockers on the 12th before returning home to host the Turlock Express on the 14th at 5:05 pm.