St. Louis Ambush Frustrated in Overtime by Baltimore

January 5, 2024 – Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) – St. Louis Ambush News Release

St. Louis Ambush battle the Baltimore Blast
(St. Louis Ambush)

Towson, Maryland – The St. Louis Ambush suffered a frustrating loss to the Baltimore Blast Friday night at the TU Arena in Towson, Maryland. The Ambush took an early lead and didn’t fall behind until the last goal of the match in overtime. The win improved the Blast to 3-4-0 on the season, while the Ambush dropped to 1-6-1.

St. Louis took a 4-2 lead in the first quarter. William Eskay and Lucas Almeida each found the back of the net twice and Eskay also assisted on one of Almeida’s tallies. Marcel Berry also recorded two assists in the period. Baltimore’s goals came from Tony Donatelli and Jesus Pacheco. Donatelli’s goal came on a penalty kick after a controversial call where officials sent Ambush goalkeeper Paulo Nascimento to the penalty box for a two footed tackle while making a save with his feet, requiring backup keeper Jose Ogaz to come in cold off the bench to face the penalty kick.

Baltimore got another power play in the second minute of the second quarter when Nascimento came out of the penalty area to make a save and was called for a handball, resulting in shootout. Ogaz came in, made a worthy effort, but not enough to stop a goal by Baltimore’s Juan Pereira, resulting in a 4-3 score. With 16.3 seconds remaining, Almeida completed the hat trick to give the visitors a 5-3 lead at halftime.

The third frame remained scoreless until 28.5 seconds remained when Pacheco posted his second goal of the contest for the Blast to make it a one-goal game (5-4) heading into the final stanza.

In the fourth minute of the fourth quarter, Donatelli scored his second of the duel to knot the score at 5-5. Baltimore clearly was feeling the momentum of having scored four of the last five goals in the match. Less than a minute later, St. Louis regained the lead when Christian Briggs nailed a long shot that deflected into the net off the body of Baltimore defender Mike Deasel. The Ambush increased their lead in the eleventh minute when Triston Austin sent a pass across the penalty area to Curtis Kirby, who was able to beat Baltimore goalkeeper Quantrell Jones. Baltimore countered with the sixth attacker and did so effectively, with Jamie Thomas scoring in the twelfth minute to make the score 7-6. With 31.6 seconds left on the clock, Baltimore drew even on a goal from Ricardinho Sobreira, sending the battle into sudden…