Wichita Seeks Vengeance Against Rival Comets

The Wichita Wings (2-6) return home this Friday night for a huge match against the rival Missouri Comets (5-5) in Hartman Arena; Kickoff scheduled for 7:35 p.m. (CST). This will be the first meeting between the two clubs since they opened the season with a home and home series dominated by the Comets. The first game saw the Wings jump out to a 13-0 lead in Missouri, only to fall 15-18 with an impressive comeback from the Comets. Two days later in Wichita the Comets won convincingly on the Wings' pitch, 19-10.

Despite a hot 4-0 start, Missouri comes into Friday's game losers of five of their six latest games, most recently defeated in their travels to Syracuse and Baltimore last weekend. In Syracuse on Friday, Missouri fell behind early, taking a 12-4 deficit into halftime. The Silver Knights would remain in control of the game throughout the second half, ultimately downing the Comets in a final score, 18-8. The following night in Baltimore was much the same for Missouri, as the league leading Blast handled the Comets with a 15-0 lead, disallowing goal for over 46 minutes. Missouri would attempt a comeback in the fourth quarter, but not before time expired as they dropped, 9-15 to the Blast.

Wichita is coming off a 10-6 loss to the Lancers in Rochester. The Wings fell behind early to the Lancers, and over the course of the game struggled to gain the momentum needed to walk away with a win. League leading scorer Doug Miller notched two goals for Rochester, the first coming off a restart in the first quarter and the second from a spectacular volley in the box from an assist off the boards by teammate Luis Enrique. Wichita responded in the second quarter with a beautiful play between Kareem Yearwood and captain, Freddy Moojen involving a perfectly placed cross from Yearwood to Moojen, allowing him to head the ball into the net to cut Rochester's lead in half. At halftime, the Wings remained down by two points with the Lancers still on top, 4-2. Moojen would add to his points for the night with a goal in the third quarter off a restart from the top of the arc to bring the score 4-8, Lancers. Geison contributed a goal two minutes into the final quarter off a power play to bring the Wings within two points of the Lancers. Despite the comeback, Wichita's chances to tie crumbled when defender, Alex Moseley, was blue carded for a hand ball and just seconds later a matching card penalized Edvin Worley, leaving the team down two players. Rochester made good on the two man advantage, putting the game out of reach for the Wings in a final score of 10-6.

Key Matchup: Wings Attack vs. Missouri Defense

Simply put, Wichita desperately needs to score more goals. The Wings are the only team in the MISL to score less than 10 points a game, currently averaging 8.6. Wichita has a perfect opportunity to improve that number on Friday against a Missouri defense that has given up 15, 18, and 24 points in their last three losses. Team captain, Freddy Moojen, scored twice against Rochester on Saturday, so watch for him to put points on the board against the Comets.

Players to Watch: Andrew Hoxie

Hoxie has played exceptionally well against Missouri this season. In the opening series with the Comets, he scored three goals in each match totaling 14 points, but has only scored three in the six games since. If Hoxie can regain his thrilling play against the Comets, Wichita could send Missouri to their third straight loss and a losing record.