INDEPENDENCE—The Chicago Soul (2-7) were on their way to complete a late comeback, but the Missouri Comets (5-3), powered by Byron Alvarez’s hat trick, hung on for the 14-11 victory on Sunday at the Independence Events Center.The Soul saw plenty of opportunities for a rally in the fourth quarter, but were simply unable to capitalize. Matthew Stewart provided some spark for Chicago, scoring a three-pointer nearly four minutes into the period and then struck again from the two-point range, but Alvarez matched Stewart’s efforts scoring two of his three goals in the final quarter. The Soul then threw out a sixth attacker in the final minutes to provide more offensive momentum. Chicago even caught a bit of a break with 33 seconds to go when Vahid Assadpour headed to penalty box, allowing the Soul a power play opportunity with their sixth attacker in the mix. Chicago managed to make several solid shot attempts, but the clock wound down and the squad simply ran out of time.

“They put great pressure on us,” Soul Head Coach Manny Rojas said of the Comets’ defense in the final minute of play. “We tried to get our best players to take shots, but Missouri just did a better job of keeping us out of close range and forcing us to take difficult shots while in counterattack. We didn’t get the clear shot we needed, and lost to a very good team.”
The Soul had started out on a positive note with Bato Radoncic getting the squad on the board early in the first quarter, but Chicago got hit with most of the damage in the second quarter and seemed to struggle the rest of the way. The second quarter consisted of dominant play on the Comets’ end, with three consecutive Missouri goals from Assadpour, Mads Falck, and Alvarez to make it a 6-2 Chicago deficit. The Soul’s Sean Summerville managed to squeeze in his first goal of the season to cut the Comets’ lead to 6-4, but Lucas Rodriguez responded minutes later with a goal to make it a four-point game by the half.The third quarter opened up with a goal by rookie Ephraim Beard on a clean pass from Summerville, and the Soul were able to bring the game back within two until Leo Gibson followed up with a goal on the other end, making it a 10-6 Comets lead heading into the final period of play.

“We will head back home now, take a good look at our problem, and try to fix it as soon as possible,” said Rojas.

The Soul will return to action at home on Friday when they host the MISL defending champion Milwaukee Wave. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. CT at the Sears
Centre Arena.