Rochester Lancers News Release -- www.rochesterlancers.com
Saturday, November 12, 2011
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Rochester Lancers began the home portion of their 2011-12 schedule on Saturday afternoon against the Missouri Comets in front of 6,528 at the Blue Cross Arena. The Lancers managed to keep the game tight until halftime, after which the Comets pulled away during the second half, winning the matinee 13-4.
The match proved to be a defensive affair early on as neither team managed a goal through the first fourteen minutes of play. With 1:06 left in the opening quarter, Missouri got on the board first when Leo Gibson’s shot deflected off Vahid Assadpour for a 1-0 Comet lead at the end of the one.
The Comets added to their lead to start the second quarter as Ryan Junge beat Rochester goalkeeper Neal Kitson to make the score 4-0. Newly acquired Jeremy Ortiz cut the Missouri lead in half midway through the second stanza going end-to-end following a missed Missouri attempt and blasting a shot past Comets goalkeeper Danny Waltman. Rochester closed out the first half with the last shot but couldn’t connect to even the score.
Coming out after the intermission, the Comets increased their lead to 7-2 when Junge connected on a three-point blast beating Kitson within the first minute. The Lancers answered back less than two minutes later, however, when Mauricio Salles connected on a spectacular bicycle kick to cut the deficit to 7-4. But with 21 seconds remaining in the third quarter Assadpour increased the road side’s advantage to 9-4, giving the Comets momentum into the final quarter.
That momentum resulted in another goal just 18 seconds into the final stanza as Gibson struck for Missouri, upping their lead to 11-4 and prompting the Lancers to switch to Leo in goal. Christiano Diaz tallied his first goal of the match for the Comets on an acrobatic play that deflected off a Lancer defender increasing the Missouri lead to an almost insurmountable 13-4 with six minutes remaining.
“Our inexperience showed tonight” said Lancers Head Coach Billy Andracki. “We gave up a three-pointer to start the second half and never really were able to get into our game plan after that. We will get better.”
With the loss the Lancers fall to 0-2. Rochester will play host to the Syracuse Silver Knights next Saturday night at the Blue Cross Arena at 7 p.m., with the Lancers set to unveil their Wall of Fame in a pregame ceremony.