Comets Snap Wave's Winning Streak

The Missouri Comets took a big step towards the MISL Playoffs with a 17-9 victory against the Milwaukee Wave in front of 3,892 fans at the Independence Events Center on Sunday afternoon. Leo Gibson scored his league-leading sixth hat trick of the season, and the Comets ended a modern-era MISL record 16-game winning streak for the Wave.
The Comets have jumped out to fast starts before, especially at home. Lately though, they have faltered late, dropping four of their last five games. On Sunday night, the Wave jumped out to the fast start. Ian Bennett found himself in the right spot twice in the first nine minutes of the game to bag a pair of goals, while Marcel Feenstra played well in the net for the Wave, saving seven Comets shots and preserving a 4-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter was a reverse of the first. The Wave tried to apply pressure on the Comets to put the game away early, and saw several opportunities turned away by Comets defenders, only allowing one shot on goalkeeper Danny Waltman that he was easily able to save.  At the other end, Vahid Assadpour and Gibson paired up twice as Gibson twice found the back of the net, once shorthanded, to tie the game, 4-4, at the midway point.
The Comets then grabbed their first lead of the game early in the second half when Ryan Junge cleared a ball from his defensive zone all the way to a waiting Byron Alvarez on the far yellow line. Collecting the pass, he beat a diving Feenstra only 31 seconds in, making it 6-4. Former Comets forward Bryan Perez, playing in his first game with the Wave, tied it up two minutes later, but the Comets took the lead for good when John Sosa fed a beautiful pass to Mads Falck who buried the shot from the left side into the right corner of the net. His goal put the Comets up 8-6 at the end of three quarters.
The Wave had not entered the fourth quarter on the losing side of the scoreboard very often this season. The Comets knew they needed to keep up the pressure to walk away with a win on the afternoon.  Alvarez helped them do just that, knocking in his second of the night two minutes into the quarter to put the Comets up 10-6.  Bennett completed his hat trick with a 3-point shot three minutes later to get the Wave within 10-9, but Assadpour put Missouri back up by three points when he scored in the eighth minute. Gibson followed that up after that, completing his hat trick, before Assadpour put the final nail in the coffin when he scored a 3-point lob from his own yellow line over the Wave’s sixth attacker with less than 10 seconds remaining.
The 17-9 victory is the Comets’ 11th of the year and the Wave’s third loss. The Comets only need one more victory to assure them of a spot in the MISL’s postseason tournament.
The Comets have two games at home next weekend, facing the Chicago Soul on Friday night at 7:35 p.m. CT and the Wichita Wings on Sunday afternoon at 3:10 p.m. CT.  Friday night is Alan Mayer night, and the team will be honoring one of the best players to ever play for the Comets, goalkeeper Alan Mayer. Sunday is the final game of the I-35 Series, when the Comets look to win the season series between Missouri and Wichita.