MILWAUKEE SWEEPS SEASON SERIES AGAINST AMBUSH
The Milwaukee Wave is one step closer to punching their ticket to the playoffs, after an 8-7 decision over the St Louis Ambush in a shootout Sunday afternoon.
Milwaukee would open the scoring late in the 1st quarter when Cesar Correra’s shot beat Paulo Nascimento high to give Milwaukee the 1-0 lead going into the break.
St Louis would score 2 goals early into the second quarter when Will Eskay found JT Thomas to level things at 1 apiece. A mere short time later, Curtis Kirby assisted Will Eskay to gain a 2-1 advantage.
A rally from Milwaukee would this time see the Wave equalize and eventually take advantage with the first goal coming from Ricardo Carvalho assisted by Marcio Leite. Moments later Max Ferdinand found Salvador Nunez in the middle of the box, whose shot beat Paulo high to give Milwaukee the 3-2 advantage going into the half.
St Louis would respond 4 minutes into the third with a powerplay goal by JT Thomas, assisted by Richard Schmermund bringing both teams level at 3.
Less than 20 seconds later, Ricardo Carvalho would score his second of the evening, once again assisted by Marcio Leite.
With under a minute left in the quarter, JT Thomas would equalize for the Ambush, at 4-4.
In a game of lead changes, St Louis would follow the script and take the lead for one last time, when Richard Schmermund gave the Ambush a 5-4 advantage assisted by Lucas Almeida.
Once again, the lead wouldn’t last, as Max Ferdinand, leveled things at 5-5 with a powerplay goal, when Andre Hayne found Max in the middle of the box.
Milwaukee would then go on the powerplay once again, with Derek Huffman, scoring an unassisted powerplay goal, to gain the lead for Milwaukee once again.
Milwaukee would get on the board once again when Ricardo Carvalho would complete his hat trick, scoring quite arguably the goal of the season! A scissors kick beat Paulo high giving Milwaukee the 7-5 advantage.
Costly penalties from the Wave would allow the Ambush to cut the lead to 7-6 when JT Thomas would score again on the powerplay.
With 53 seconds remaining in the game, the Ambush would equalize through Schmermund once again on the powerplay.
End to end action saw both teams have opportunities to win the game in overtime, but 10 minutes wasn’t enough as the game went into a shoot.
JT Thomas and Marcio Leite would both score the first goals for their respective teams, in the first round.
Will Nyamsi and Ricardo Carvalho, both had their shots saved in the second round.
The last shooters started with Lucas Almeida, who was able to score what he thought was the go ahead goal. After a successful challenge by Milwaukee for the ball not starting on the yellow line, Almeida was forced to re take his opportunity, which was ultimately blocked by goalkeeper Willie B!
Max Ferdinand finished the third and final shootout opportunity to give Milwaukee the 8-7 result.
Player of the game Ricardo Carvalho stated, “Winning against St Louis, that was good, they always give a good fight. Away games, home games, they are a good team. Today like all the games, we won, we got the sweep, and my goal, well I’ve been training too much beach soccer, so I saw the opportunity, and I just threw my body into the air.”
Coach Giuls reflected and said, “I think we’re at the point of the season, where every point matters. We’re up 7-5 late into the 4th quarter, little bit disappointing we went to overtime. Great effort in the 10 minutes by both the Ambush and the Wave, and they went 1 for 3 in the shootout and we went 2 for 3, and that one point could be the difference for any place in the playoffs. Are we fully satisfied? No, but at the end of the day, we’re still undefeated in regulation at home, something we’re going to continue on, for our last regular season home game into the playoffs”
The Wave will travel to Dallas for a St Patty’s day affair against the Sidekicks on Sunday before returning home for Fan appreciation night against the San Diego Sockers on Friday March 22nd.
Tickets are on sale now at MilwaukeeWave.com or at the Box Office one hour prior to game start.