COMETS LOSE REGULAR SEASON FINALE TO BLAST
BALTIMORE, MD - (March 30, 2025) - The Kansas City Comets will enter the 2025 Ron Newman Cup Playoffs as the No. 4 seed following their 8-5 defeat to the Baltimore Blast on Sunday afternoon at TU Arena in Towson, Maryland.
With some roster rotation from Friday's overtime victory, the trio of Julio Coronado, Nick McDonald and Felipe Abreu made their season debuts. First-year forward Kyle Greig also contributed offensively with his first goal and assist in the MASL.
The Comets took the lead twice in the opening quarter, starting inside the opening 70 seconds when Greig supplied a wallascora pass for Rian Marques to finish off. Baltimore equalized shortly after, but Joe Wainwright put the Comets back up 2-1 after hopping on a rebound.
Again, the Blast found the equalizer when Wellington Bramusse tied it 2-2 midway through the first quarter. Baltimore took its first lead of the contest early in the second quarter through Jamie Thomas to make it 3-2, but the Comets were able to kill a penalty to avoid any further damage before halftime.
Despite rookie goalkeeper Julio Coronado playing well until leaving the game injured, the Comets continued to hang around in the third period. Replacing Coronado, goalkeeper Nicolau Neto notched his 13th career assist, finding Greig for his first goal as a Comet after creating some space and rifling a left-footed shot low into the far corner to tie it 3-3.
Baltimore got back in front before Stefan Mijatovic pulled it right back for the Comets. Baltimore's Chad Poarch scored his second of the game 11:32 into the contest, giving the Blast a 5-4 advantage into the final quarter.
The Comets had a difficult time getting back in the game in the fourth as Baltimore added two more to their lead. Zach Reget pulled one back making it 7-5 with 3:08 remaining, but the Blast responded with one final score to seal an 8-5 verdict.
Defender Chad Vandegriffe added five blocks to his tremendous season, bringing his tally to 81 blocks and ending the regular season as MASL's leading shot-blocker. Neto took the loss, but played well coming off the bench to make 13 saves in 26 minutes of action while Coronado made nine saves in his debut.
The Comets end the weekend 1-1, but they had an opportunity to take more from Sunday's defeat. Late mistakes ended up harming the Comets' chances of another comeback effort.
"At the end of the day, you have to stay disciplined for four quarters," Comets coach Stefan Stokic said. "Our legs got a little heavy. I don't think at any point we lost belief or intensity. Objectively, a little bit of the quality needs to be better and decision-making. I don't like to make excuses, so now we've got to go home, recover and get ready for a new season in the playoffs."
Concluding the regular season with a 15-7-2 record, the Comets now move on as the No. 4 seed in the 2025 Ron Newman Cup Playoffs, which start on April 4 at Frontwave Arena in San Diego. Fans still have the opportunity to reserve their seat for next season at a discounted price until Monday, March 31 at kccomets.com/seasontickets2526.