January 5, 2014 - Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) Missouri Comets INDEPENDENCE, MO (January 5, 2013) - The Missouri Comets earned a triumphant win over the Rochester Lancers at the Independence Events Center this afternoon. The Comets fell behind early, but climbed their way back the entire game and finally took the lead in overtime on a beautiful restart from John Sosa to Vahid Assadpour. For the fourth straight game, Assadpour led the Comets. Tonight he had two goals for five points. The 11-9 win gave the Comets their sixth win of the year and moved them within a game of first-place.

Normally when these two teams match-up, the scoreboard is lit up with goal after goal. Tonight, the defenses came out to play. Neither squad could score in either the first or fourth quarters. Rochester took a 7-3 halftime lead when Doug Miller, Elliot Fauske and Gary Boughton found the net in the second quarter. Assadpour's first goal, a three-point score, was the only tally for the Comets in the first half.

The third quarter was a reversal of the second. Bato Radoncic scored on a power play for the Lancers, but Missouri countered with goals from Bryan Perez, Alex Megson and Coady Andrews. The Comets defense only allowed five shots in the entire second half, none of them on goal. Controversy arose in the third quarter when Comets' forward Leo Gibson was ejected. Running down the field shoulder to shoulder with a Lancers player, Gibson's elbow appeared to make contact with the other player. It was enough contact, according to the referee, to warrant the red card. Without the league's third-leading scorer, Missouri poured on the pressure throughout the fourth quarter, but could not get past Lancers goalkeeper, Gavin McInerny.

Comets coach, Vlatko Andonovski, rallied his players as they prepared for the sudden-death overtime period and instilled the confidence in them needed to win the game.

"I told them we were ready," said Andonovski. "I told them, the first shot was going to win the game."

Forty-three seconds into the extra period, the Comets were awarded a restart opportunity at the top of the arc. True to their coach's words, Missouri made the opportunity count. Before the Lancers were fully set up to defend the kick, John Sosa passed a straight low ball to Assadpour who was waiting wide open on the left-post. He one-touched the shot straight across the goal into the side netting to clinch the game for the home-side, 11-9.

The Comets head back to the east coast for a pair of games in Syracuse and Reading Pennsylvania on January 10th & 11th. The team returns to the Independence Events Center on January 17th for another match against the league-leading Milwaukee Wave at 7:35p.m. CT. The team will also welcome back the World Famous Mascot Game on January 17th featuring Comets' mascot Calvin, Dollar Dog and many of their friends for an exhibition at halftime.

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Comets Win in Overtime