AHL Utica Comets

Blast Top Utica City in Gritty Back and Forth Match

Published on December 8, 2018 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Utica Comets News Release


Towson, MD - Utica City FC was topped by the Baltimore Blast in a back and forth match at the SECU Arena. Utica would not surrender their lead until the fourth quarter and outshot the Blast 27-21. Utica is now 2-1 in their inaugural season.

Mauricio Salles opened the scoring just six seconds into the game with a left-footed strike off a free kick. Nate Bourdeau was credited with the assist. Baltimore's Tony Donatelli evened the score less than two minutes with a right-footed strike past Utica City FC' goalkeeper Andrew Coughlin. Slavisa Ubiparipovic put Utica up by one as he powered a free-kick past the Baltimore keeper.

Baltimore opened the scoring in the second quarter with a shot from Andrew Hoxie beating Coughlin to even the score at two. Darren Toby grabbed a power-play goal at 3:24 into the period to put Utica back on top. Coughlin came up with some huge stops in the final minutes of the quarter to keep the Utica boys on top to close out the half.

Jon Orlando opened the third quarter with a bomb past the goalkeeper for Baltimore. Nate Bourdeau would respond seven minutes later with an unassisted tally to put Utica up once again. The back and forth action would continue as Josh Hughes put a ball into the net for Baltimore to even things up.

Donatelli put the Blast on top for the first time in the match with a shot from the top of the circle off a pass from Marco Nascimento. Callahan tied it back up 31 seconds later on an assist from Tavernese's foot. Donatelli earned his third of the night using a free-kick to split the Utica defense putting the Blast up 6-5. Hoxie would tack on another less than a minute later for the first two-goal lead of the night. Tavernese scored off his own rebound bring the City within one but it ultimately would not be enough to defeat the Blast.

Utica returns home tomorrow afternoon to square off against the visiting Florida Tropics. Match time is 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.empirestatetix.com or the Box Office starting at 10 a.m. All MASL games can be viewed on MASL.tv.

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