WAVE DEFEATS DALLAS IN EXCITING GAME SUNDAY AT UW-MILWAUKEE PANTHER AREA

The Milwaukee Wave welcomed the Dallas Sidekicks to the Panther Arena Sunday, for the second week in a row. The narrative started similar to last week, with Dallas scoring the first goal, by none other than Blas Perez, at 12:17 of the 1st when Gustavo Piedra found Blas down low, whose shot found the side netting to give the sidekicks the 1-0 lead. 

It wasn’t until the 3:56 mark when Milwaukee would equalize as Andre Hayne laid off a ball to Marcio Leite whose shot found the back of the net to equalize at 1-1.

Fast forward to the 3rd, where Milwaukee’s Andre Hayne was sent to the box for tripping at 3:36, resulting in the man advantage for Dallas who capitalized again from Blas Perez, this time assisted by Albert Rodriguez.

An even-strength tally from Derek Huffman, assisted by Marcio Leite, at 8:05 saw Milwaukee equalize at 2-2. 

At 10:20 of the 3rd, Albert Rodriguez was called for a kicking infraction, resulting in a blue card and 2-minute power play for Milwaukee. It only took Milwaukee 18 seconds to take advantage when Marcio Leite found Ricardo Carvalho, whose shot against the boards, found its way past Sidekicks keeper Juan Gamboa for the 3-2 advantage to Milwaukee. 

At 3:11 of the 4th, newcomer, David Texeira, equalized with the assist coming from Gustavo Piedra. 

Dallas Head Coach, and former Milwaukee Wave member, Ed Puskarich immediately threw his challenge flag, when defender Kristian Quintana was sent to the box for a dangerous challenge. The challenge was lost, and Milwaukee was on the power play yet again, where Ian Bennett was the hero and finished off a well-timed pass from Marcio Leite to bring the score to 4-3. 

Moments later, Dallas thought they had equalized, but a Milwaukee challenge, resulted in the goal being overturned when David Texeira was deemed to have fouled Andrew Wiedabach just inside the box resulting in a Wave free kick, and the goal was overturned, much to the displeasure of the Sidekicks. 

A late fury from the Sidekicks, couldn’t solve Milwaukee, who came out as 4-3 victors and jumps ahead of Kansas City in the standings. 

Marcio Leite ended the evening with 1 goal and 3 assists and stated that “Dallas had played really hard, they did a really good job defensively, shutting down some of our strengths, but we found a way, I thought today, you know they scored 2 goals on restarts, you know thats something that we have to shut down, but I think we were very effective with our power play and restarts. So that made the difference, it was a good game, and I mean in regards to the goal and the assist and I think Im feeling good, it seems like my shots are going in, and we do have a lot of threats, offensively, and If I give a good pass to Ian or Ricardo, most of the time they’ll be scoring goals, so its an easy job for me.” 

Coach Giuliano reflected on tonights victory stating that, “the Dallas Sidekicks should be given a lot of credit, their coach Eddie Puskarich came in really prepared, their energy was great, they were organized, Blas Perez, you can see why he is a world class player with 2 goals, unfortunately, he came up hurt with a hamstring injury, probably a fortunate for us, but our guys stuck with it, we gave up 0 goals in 5v5 run of play, very happy about that, gave up 2 set pieces and a power play, some things to work on there, but you know it was a close game, and we were able to pull it out, and our goal was to get 3 points at the end of the day and I felt we accomplished that.” 

The Wave travel to Monterrey and Texas this week before returning to UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena,