The Missouri Comets blew it open in the second half to notch their second straight win at home. Byron Alvarez led the Comets with four goals and John Sosa and Brian Harris added a pair to cruise to a 24 – 11 win over the Wichita Wings Sunday afternoon.
The Comets opened the scoring on a Brian Harris three point goal but the Wings came back strong when former Comets Geison put home two powerplay goals and Tiguinho added a three pointer to lead the home team 7-3 at the end of the first.
The second quarter continued the physical play but the scoring was almost all in favor of the Comets. John Sosa scored twice, Stefan St. Louis scored his first career goal and Stefan Stokic and Alvarez added goals to lead the Wings 14-9 at half.
The third quarter was all Comets and featured two controversial plays. The Wings bench complained when it appeared to them that Alvarez intentionally stepped on a down player but the officials made no call. “I would not do that, I am not that type of player,” Alvarez explained after the game.
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The Wings were not so lucky when Geison received a red card and was ejected for striking Sosa. “Just part of the game, it’s a physical game. I came from his blind side,” observed Sosa. “I don’t think it was intentional. I know the guy well, he is a nice guy.”
It was physical, very physical. I think there was some decisions that hopefully the league will take a look at and do something about.
“It’s going to come across as sour grapes I’m sure but our guy goes off on red card,” Wings head coach LeBaron Hollimon stated after the match. “Their guy didn’t even have a foul called on him and they actually scored off of it. Maybe it is a bit of sour grapes but hopefully the league will take a look at it.”
“I am by no means saying that is why we lost the game,” Hollimon continued. “We were the orchestrators of our own demise in the majority of cases. We failed to deal with balls in the danger area, the defensive third. We failed to clear our lines on those areas.”
Without Geison in the lineup, the Wings lost most of their offence and the Comets were able to keep the pressure up, adding goals by Lucas Rodriguez, another by Harris and three more by Alvarez.
The old Comets – Wings rivalry continues to intensify and each match seems to get more physical, more heated.
“It was a physical game and the boys stepped up to the play and I am proud of them,” Comets head coach Kim Roentved explained after the match. “Even when Wichita got ahead we stuck with the game plan and the game plan was absolutely going after them. I felt like the last couple games we had a lot of energy in there and I wanted to take advantage of that, rotating a lot.”
The Comets stay at home to face Milwaukee Thursday night before traveling to Wichita to face the Wings again on Saturday.
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