The Milwaukee Wave defeated the St. Louis Ambush 21-9 in Major Indoor Soccer League action Saturday night at US Cellular Arena in Milwaukee.
Richard Schmermund put the Ambush on the board with his first tally of the season, a three-point goal into the upper corner at 3:15 of the opening stanza. Chad Vandegriffe increased the lead to 5-0 at 6:12.
The Wave wasted no time answering as Luan Oliveira fired a three-point rocket into the upper corner of the goal just 27 seconds into the period. Milwaukee scored again at 1:52when the Ambush left Philip Suprise unmarked inside the box, enabling him to take a pass from Victor Quiroz and put it in the goal to tie the game. Forward Ian Bennett gave Milwaukee their first lead of the contest with his goal at 3:20. Forward Marcelo Fontana found himself unmarked inside the box, and headed in a pass from Quiroz at 4:36 to increase Milwaukee’s lead to 9-5. At the seven minute mark, Ian Bennett scored his second goal of the night on a fast break with the help of Carlos Munoz. St. Louis answered in the last minute of the quarter when forward Dan Antoniuk scored off a pass from Odaine Sinclair at 14:13 to close out the half with Milwaukee leading 11-7.
Ian Bennett started the scoring in the second half when he took a pass from Victor Quiroz and shot it over goalkeeper Jeff Richey’s head at 3:44 to increase Milwaukee’s lead to 13-7. In a chaotic scene inside the box at 8:12, the ball bounced around until Kyle Hopson managed to bury it in the goal to cut Milwaukee’s lead to 13-9 and that score would hold until the end of the quarter.
Marcio Leite wasted no time getting things going for Milwaukee when he scored just seven seconds into the final quarter. Less than five minutes later, Ambush goalkeeper Jeff Richey left the goalkeeper area to challenge Leite, who fired a shot past the charging Richey. The ball deflected off Ambush defender Mike Mesle’s foot and into the net at 4:52 for Leite’s second tally of the contest. At 8:15, Leite was able to maneuver around Mesle toward the middle of the goalkeeper area and put a shot past Richey to complete the natural hat trick and increase Milwaukee’s lead to 19-9. The Wave would strike one more time, when Oliveira passed across the area to Hewerton, who caught Richey off to the side and fired into the back of the net at 11:59 to seal the 21-9 win for Milwaukee.
Milwaukee goakeeper Marcel Feenstra made eight saves on 12 attempts, while Jeff Richey saved 18 of 28. Milwaukee outshot St. Louis 48-28. Defensively, each team made nine blocks. The battle was physical and at times tense, as some face-to-face encounters occurred between Wave and Ambush players and fouls mounted up, with St. Louis receiving 16 and the Wave receiving 17.
The victory improved the first-place Wave’s record to 10-2, while St. Louis dropped to 4-10. The loss marked the end of a four-game road trip for the Ambush, who lost all four and will surely welcome a return to the friendly confines of the Family Arena, where they will host the Wave next Saturday, February 1 at 1:35 p.m. Even in loss, there was a positive note for St. Louis. The nine-point game broke a scoring drought for the Ambush, who only managed to score two goal (four points) in their previous three games.
