Stars Fall to Ambush on the Road 8-5
Published on February 7, 2026 under Major Arena Soccer League (MASL)
Tacoma Stars News Release
ST. CHARLES, MO. - The Tacoma Stars (7-5-1) continued their road woes in St. Charles on Saturday night, dropping a 8-5 decision to the St. Louis Ambush (7-3-3) at The Family Arena. With the win, the Ambush leap-frogged the Stars into 4th place in the MASL standings.
St. Louis managed the only goal of the opening frame less than two minutes into the contest. Christian Briggs picked up a loose ball following a top-of-arc restart and fed William Eskay for his 7th goal of the season and a very quick 1-0 Ambush lead with 13:11 to go in the first.
The Ambush doubled their lead in the second when Mario Falsone drew Stars keeper Luis Birrueta off his line with a cross-field pass to Andres Chalbaud, who tucked it in the far post for a 2-0 lead with 9:50 left in the first half.
The teams almost went into halftime by that score until Stars captain Alex Caceres found Douglas Lima for his 4th of the season with 10 seconds left in the half.
Daniel Torrealba opened the scoring in the third quarter for the Ambush on a rocket of a shot to the upper right corner off a restart. Chalbaud shuffled a pass to Torrealba, who took two steps to his right and netted his 15th goal of the season. His goal was the first of six combined goals between the teams and gave St. Louis a 3-1 with 12:58 to play in the third.
Tacoma struck next when Tyler John fed a quick pass to the low far post and Khai Brisco one-timed a shot past Paulo Nascimento to make it a 3-2, St. Louis with 11:32 on the clock.
Eskay's second goal of the game was a tap-in on a long pass from Robert Williamson to push the Ambush lead back to two at 4-2.
Though technically not a power-play goal, the next Stars marker came just as their man-advantage ended when John found Yahir Romero to cut the St. Louis lead back to a single goal at 4-3 with 3:10 to go in the third.
It took just 19 seconds for the Ambush to respond on Falsone's 7th goal of the season to give St. Louis another two-goal lead of the game at 5-3.
Tacoma's first back-to-back goals of the game, first a Brisco toe-poke and then a Jamael Cox chip over Nascimento leveled the game at 5-5 with 12:28 to play in the final quarter.
A pair of tripping penalties on Tacoma led to St. Louis retaking the lead. First, Chase Hanson drew a blue card for tripping and that play set up a shootout attempt for Jeff Michaud. On the attempt, Birrueta was carded for a trip as well, this time leading to a penalty kick attempt for St. Louis' Ozzy Santana, making his MASL debut. Santana beat Stars keeper Danny Waltman for his first goal and a 6-5 Ambush lead with 7:46 to play.
Briggs' 2nd goal of the season, assisted by Eskay gave the Ambush some breathing room and pushed the St. Louis lead to 7-5 with 4:38 to play in the game. An empty-net goal from John Gates put the Ambush up 8-5 with 19 seconds left and dropped Tacoma's road record to 0-4-1 this season.
The teams will play one more time this season on March 21 at the accesso ShoWare Center in Kent.
The Stars return home to host the Milwaukee Wave in their only regular-season appearance at the accesso ShoWare Center on Sunday, February 15 at 5:05 pm. Tickets are available at https://tacomastars.showare.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=46 today!
SCORING SUMMARY
1st - STL Eskay-7 (Briggs) 1:49. Penalties - None.
2nd - STL Chalbaud-1 (Falsone) 5:10; TAC Lima-4 (Caceres) 14:50. Penalties - STL Eskay (bc- tripping) 7:28.
3rd - STL Torrealba-15 (Michaud) 2:02; TAC Brisco-3 (John) 3:28; STL Eskay-8 (Williamson) 6:04; TAC Romero-3 (John) 11:50; STL Falsone-7 (Briggs) 12:09; TAC Brisco-4 (Hernandez) 13:20. Penalties - STL Chalbaud (bc- charging) 9:33.
4th - TAC Cox-10 (Correa) 2:32; STL Santana-1 (unassisted) 7:14 pk; STL Briggs-2 (Eskay) 10:22; STL Gates-2 (Martinez) 14:41 en. Penalties - TAC Hanson (bc- tripping) 7:14; TAC Birrueta (bc- tripping) 7:14.
Power Play - Stars 0/2, St. Louis 0/2
Shots - Stars 29, St. Louis 27
Fouls - Stars 16, St. Louis 10
Attendance - 2,307
Select suites are still available for some games. Enjoy a Stars game with your family and friends in your own private suite! For more information call 1-844-STARS-84 today.
Stay up to date with the Stars by following them on Twitter (@TacomaStarsSC) or Instagram (Instagram.com/thetacomastars), and by liking the team on Facebook (FB.com/TacomaStars).
Major Arena Soccer League Stories from February 7, 2026
- St. Louis Ambush Defeat Tacoma, 8-5, Saturday at Family Arena - MASL
- St. Louis Ambush Defeat Tacoma, 8-5, Saturday at Family Arena - St. Louis Ambush
- Stars Fall to Ambush on the Road 8-5 - Tacoma Stars
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