STARS ROAD WOES CONTINUE IN KANSAS CITY

by Pete Richmier

KANSAS CITY, MO. – The Tacoma Stars (2-5) dropped their second road match in two nights as they ran into a high-powered Kansas City Comets (3-3) offense and dropped a 9-2 decision to close out 2019. The Comets benefitted from the outstanding play of two rookies, goalkeeper Lou Misner and defender Ray Lee. Misner made his MASL debut and limited the Stars to a pair of goals while picking up 14 saves along the way. Lee registered his first career hat-trick bringing his season total to five goals scored.

The lone goal of the first quarter was Eddie Na’s second of the season and came on an assist from Nick Perera on a two on one breakaway with 4:19 left in the opening frame.

Momentum shifted during the second 15 minutes as Kansas City posted four unanswered goals beginning with Leo Gibson on an assist from Matt Lewis with 7:17 remaining in the first half. Back to back goals from Lee, the first unassisted and the second from Gibson, gave the Comets a 3-1 advantage with 2:28 to go. Robert Palmer closed out first half scoring for Kansas City on his first goal of the season to reach the 4-1 halftime score.

Lucas Rodriguez made it five straight Comet goals early in the second half as Kansas City went up 5-1 with 13:36 left in the third quarter. The teams traded last minute goals in the frame beginning with Perera’s ninth of the season for Tacoma on a Cory Keitz assist with 45 seconds remaining. Adam James slid a shot into the back of the net for Kansas City with 1.7 seconds on the clock and gave the Comets a 6-2 lead heading into the final quarter.

All scoring in the final 15 minutes belonged to the home team, first with Palmer’s second of the night with 5:51 left to play. The Stars sixth attacker, Raphael Cox was issued a blue card for handling less than a minute later setting up a shoot out for the Comets. Rodriguez broke for the net but when Stars keeper Danny Waltman came off his line to challenge, Rodriguez slid a pass to his right and Kiel Williams sent it into the net to give the Comets an 8-2 advantage with 5:11 to go. Lee closed out scoring and completed his hat-trick against six attackers with 2:41 remaining.


SCORING SUMMARY

1st – TAC Na (Perera) 10:42. Penalties – none.

2nd – KC Gibson (Lewis) 7:43; KC Lee 10:24; KC Lee (Gibson) 12:32; KC Palmer (Lewis) 13:10. Penalties – TAC Neagle yellow card (dissent) 14:44.

3rd – KC Rodriguez (Sosa) 1:23; TAC Perera (Keitz) 14:15; KC James (Flores) 14:53. Penalties – KC Gibson yellow card (dissent) 7:14.

4th – KC Palmer (Sandivari) 9:09; KC Williams (Rodriguez) 9:49 SO; KC Lee (James) 12:19. Penalties – TAC Perera blue card (reckless tackle) 5:20; TAC R. Cox blue card (handling) 9:41.


The Stars return to action after the New Year when they invade Texas for a pair of games. They will face off with the Mesquite Outlaws at 5:05 pm PST on Saturday January 4 followed by the Dallas Sidekicks on Sunday at 1:05 pm PST. You can catch all the action on MASL.tv.

Stay up to date with the Stars by following them on Twitter (@TacomaStarsSC) or Instagram (Instagram.com/thetacomastars), and by liking the team on Facebook (FB.com/TacomaStars).


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