Kansas City Comets crash out of MASL playoffs with overtime road loss to Utica City FC
The Kansas City Comets saw their Major Arena Soccer League season come to an end Monday at the Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, New York.
The Comets bowed out of the Ron Newman Cup Playoffs with a 7-6 overtime loss to Utica City FC in the Eastern Conference play-in game.
A spot in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the top-seeded Milwaukee Wave was at stake Monday. It was a tall task for a Comets team that struggles on the road to visit one of the league’s toughest environments and escape with a win against the hottest team in the Eastern Conference.
The Comets came mightily close but were unable to extend their season an extra week.
The Comets got out to a 3-0 first-half lead as target forward Rian Marques scored twice in the first quarter, and another that got called off upon video review. That was far from enough as Utica came thundering back with three consecutive scores.
A tight second half saw Utica take a 6-5 lead in the fourth quarter before the Comets equalized the contest with more than five minutes remaining. The final five minutes were nervy, but both teams settled for sudden-death overtime to extend their season.
The Comets’ best overtime opportunity was a shot destined to hit the frame before it was blocked by a defender. Utica heavily possessed the ball during the first couple minutes of overtime and scored the sudden-death winner 2:41 into the extra period when Cristhian Segura sliced through the Comets’ defense.
His left-footed effort inside the far post was Segura’s third goal of the game; he scored twice in the second quarter.
The Comets failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs this season after falling just short of the MASL Finals in both of the previous two years.
Despite the postseason disappointment, this season was far from a failure as the Comets fans turned out all season to lead the league in attendance for the first time in MASL history. An average of 4,355 fans filing into Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence.
To stay up-to-date on the Comets over the offseason and the upcoming 2023-24 season with MASL expansion, visit www.kccomets.com and follow the team’s social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
