Comets Top Winless Roar

The Missouri Comets finished off their two-game road trip with a resounding 13-5 win over the expansion Roar at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania. Missouri’s Byron Alvarez finished with three points, scoring a goal and assisting on another. Reading’s leading scorer, JerJer Gibson had a 3-point goal to lead his team.

Coming off a disappointing 11-8 loss last night in Syracuse, the Comets were determined to have a good showing against the winless Pennsylvania Roar. Robert Palmer started the night off on the right foot with an unassisted goal a little over a minute into the game. Coady Andrews added a three-point score midway through the quarter and Ramone Palmer chipped in a score midway through the second quarter to give Missouri a 7-0 halftime lead.

After suffering a third quarter collapse on Friday, the Comets controlled possession throughout the period. Capitalizing on a Pennsylvania mistake, Alvarez scored early in the quarter to increase their lead to 9-0. Now, with a comfortable lead, Missouri played it safe, passing the ball all the way back to keeper, Danny Waltman if they felt the play needed to be reset.

Perhaps a little too relaxed, a slow-paced pass back to Waltman allowed the Roar’s newly signed Kingsley Onwuka to confuse the Comets defense and get his side their first points of the night with a little over four minutes remaining in the third quarter. Pennsylvania’s Gibson found the far side netting past Waltman to briefly cut the Comets lead to 9-5 early in the fourth quarter.

Missouri remained calm as Pennsylvania hoped to climb back into the match by inserting Ptah Myers as a sixth attacker. Brian Harris pulled the ball out of the defensive zone and streaked down to the corner. Perhaps thinking he was just killing time, the Roar’s defender allowed Harris to turn and hit a rocket of a shot into the net. Alvarez and John Sosa also beat Pennsylvania’s pressure in the final minutes of the game, giving them a two-on-none breakaway against Roar goalkeeper, Peter Pappas. The indoor soccer legend, Pappas, had no chance as Sosa’s score gave the Comets a 13-5 lead, which was all they needed as they played keep-away for the final minute of action.