The St. Louis Ambush played a good game overall, but came up short against the Milwaukee Wave Sunday afternoon at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The 5-4 win improved Milwaukee to 14-7-1 on the season, while the Ambush dropped to 9-11-2. It also solidifies the first place Wave’s chances of capturing the MASL Eastern Division crown as the regular season winds down.
St. Louis scored the lone goal of the first quarter when William Eskay took a shot that came off the board and found Lucas Almeida, who put the ball in goal in the fifth minute. Milwaukee’s first tally came in the second minute of the second period when Salvador Nunez took a pass from Marcio Leite and was able to get a shot by Ambush goalkeeper Paulo Nascimento. The Wave took a lead in the fifth minute when Leite took a shot that Paulo was in position to block, but Ian Bennett was able to redirect the ball into the goal before it reached Nascimento. At halftime, the home team enjoyed a 2-1 lead.
In the second minute of the third quarter, Nascimento was sent to the penalty box for handling the ball outside the penalty area, giving Milwaukee a shootout. Backup keeper Mark Baker came in cold off the bench and gave up the goal to Alex Sanchez to give the Wave a 3-1 lead. The Ambush got one back when Marcel Berry beat Wave goalkeeper Wiliam Banahene, who had just made three saves, in the fourteenth minute of the third frame. Milwaukee answered 29 seconds later when Bennett notched his second goal of the contest to make it 4-2, a score that held until the end of the quarter.
In the second minute of the final stanza, Berry sent a pass across the penalty area to Christian Briggs, who found the back of the net, making it a 4-3 match. It wouldn’t take long for Milwaukee to get that one back, as Bennett struck again less than a minute later to give the Wave a 5-3 lead. St. Louis made it a one-goal game (5-4) when Will Eskay shot from outside the yellow line, hit the crossbar and into the net in the eleventh minute. Despite a flurry of shots from the Ambush in the final minute, none were on target and Milwaukee came away with the 5-4 win.
The Ambush have two games remaining in the 2022-23 regular season, which wraps up next weekend with two games in the Sunshine State. On Friday, March 31, the Ambush square off with the Florida Tropics at 6:05 p.m. CDT at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland with a return engagement slated for Sunday, April 2 at 2:05 p.m. CDT. Both remaining Ambush games can be viewed online at twitch.com.
Season tickets for the 2023-24 season are now on sale. Call the Ambush office at 636-477-6363 for more information.
