Muskegon Risers earn soccer victory over St. Louis; rematch Saturday night at Trinity Health Arena

By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – With the success the Muskegon Risers have enjoyed so far against the St. Louis Ambush this season, the Risers would love to face them in every game.

The Risers opened the season with a 5-2 win at home over St. Louis back in early December. But then suffered a three-game losing streak against the other competition in the North Division of the Major Arena Soccer League 2.

Muskegon bounced back against the Ambush with a 12-8 win on Friday night at Trinity Health Arena.

The Risers, who have won both their games at home this season, are now 2-3 and they will look to continue their success against St. Louis Saturday night hoping to reach the .500 mark.

The contest will start at 7 p.m.

“They are a great squad, but they just give up some bad goals at times,” said Risers coach Michael Vollmer. “I was not happy with the last minute of play, and I expressed that with the team. But besides that, we defended well for the first 59 minutes of play.”  

Muskegon will look to climb in the standings as it is in the middle of a four-game homestand that concludes with a pair of games against the Iowa Demon Hawks during the first weekend in February.

“We wanted to win tonight so that we would have a chance at .500 (Saturday),” Vollmer said. “Then a tough Demon Hawks team comes to town, but I believe we have a better chance of beating them here just like we did last season.”

The Risers were paced by their leading goal scorer, Miguel Flores, with a three-goal hat trick, while Brandon Dinesmore, Taylor Pill and Jonah Dancer each found the back of the net twice.

Dinesmore played in his first game of the season and made an impact, opening both the first and second halves with key goals to help the Risers to victory.

“I scored two tap-in goals thanks to my teammates,” Dinesmore said. “I loved to be back with the guys. I had some work events to do which is why I didn’t start playing for the team from the start. Every goal counts and I was glad that I could finish them. I was at a great place at a great time.”

The Ambush opened the scoring with a goal from Raul Arteaga at the 3:09 mark of the first quarter.

The Risers quickly responded as Dinesmore connected at the 4:09 mark to tie the contest.

St. Louis regained its goal advantage 12:22 into the first quarter on a strike from Kyle Swanner after it successfully killed the lone power play of the period.

Muskegon trailed 2-1 heading into the second quarter.

The Risers took their first lead of the night after Flores notched his ninth goal of the season 58 seconds into the second quarter, and Pill found the back of the net at 3:23.

The advantage lasted only 15 seconds as St. Louis responded with a goal from Louie Perez at the 3:38 mark of the second quarter.

The Risers scored the final goal of the first half to take a 4-3 lead at halftime. Dancer scored 9:32 into the second quarter for the go-ahead goal.

The teams exchanged goals early in the third quarter as Dinesmore scored his second of the evening from right in front of the net to give Muskegon a 5-3 lead.

The Ambush responded at 4:55 as Perez found the back of the net for his second of the night. That left St. Louis down by just one goal.

It looked like the Risers were going to score a goal with nine minutes left in the third quarter, but the referee said the ball didn’t completely cross the goal line.

The Risers continued to bring on the pressure and scored two unanswered goals to take a 7-4 lead.

Aldony Mendez scored off his own rebound in front of the net at the 10:27 mark of the third quarter, then Brandon Edwards added a tally at 11:54 to give Muskegon a three-goal advantage.  

The Risers led 7-4 heading into the final quarter of play.

Pill connected on the power play 3:51 into the fourth quarter to increase the Risers lead to an 8-5 advantage.

The Ambush responded 6:55 into the stanza with a goal from Brennon Austin but Muskegon regained its three-goal advantage with Flores’ second goal of the night at the 8:02 mark of the final quarter.

The Risers scored three late fourth-quarter goals from Moses Crawford (12:22) and Dancer (12:56) before Flores completed the three-goal hat trick on an empty net tally with 1:32 remaining in the contest.

St. Louis finished the contest strong, scoring a pair of goals in the final minute of action.

Take a look at more photos from the action shot by Leo Valdez.