UTICA CITY ROLLS PAST ST. LOUIS

St. Charles, Mo. – Utica City scored early and often as they rolled to an 11-5 victory over the St. Louis Ambush Sunday evening at The Family Arena. Bo Jelovac, Ricardo Diegues and Moises Gonzalez all scored twice, while Cristhian Segura, Darren Toby, Onua Obasi, Ben Ramin, and Jake Schindler chipped in with one goal each.

Segura got things started 1:13 into the game, taking a pass from Diegues and burying his 14^th of the season. JT Thomas evened the game at one just a minute later. Jelovac put Utica back on top with 3:21 to go in the first when his pass was deflected into the net by a St. Louis defender. Diegues added to Utica’s lead with 12 seconds to go in the quarter, blasting a one-touch header from Gonzalez past the keeper.

Gonzalez pushed the lead to 4-1 after Ben Ramin created a turnover in the offensive end that led to Gonzalez sneaking a shot inside the left post. Diegues continued the scoring run at the 4:48 mark of the second quarter, dribbling his way out of trouble and poking a shot over the head of the keeper. Lucas Almeida cut Utica’s lead to 5-2 with a power play goal with 4:56 to go in the second quarter. Diegues found a streaking Schindler who poked home his sixth of the year to regain Utica’s four-goal lead 1:24 later.

Jelovac scored again after James Togbah found him streaking down the left side and the captain finished with the right foot. Two and a half minutes later, Togbah found Toby wide open in the middle and Toby buried a shot off the post and in to extend City’s lead to 8-2. Tony Walls ended Utica’s scoring run with the extra attacker on the field with 2:06 to go in the third quarter.

With the sixth attacker on, Thomas scored on a header 32 seconds into the fourth quarter bring the score to 8-4 in favor of Utica. Obasi answered back with 9:22 to go in regulation, sprinting down the left side and finishing with a left-footed strike. Ramin scored on the empty net halfway through the quarter to make it 10-4 Utica. Pablo da Silva added a late goal, but Gonzalez answered back 20 seconds later to seal the win.

Utica City is back in action on Friday, January 31 when they host the Ambush. Kickoff at the Adirondack Bank Center is at 7 p.m. Tickets are still available at the Box Office, over the phone by calling (315) 790-9070, or online at www.empirestatetix.com. The game be viewed on MASL.tv.

Scoring Summary

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