WAVE HANG 30 ON ROAR IN DOMINANT HOME VICTORY

MILWAUKEE (Feb. 16) — A matchup that didn't seem competitive on paper turned out exactly that way on the field Sunday at the U.S. Cellular Arena.

Luan Olivera completed a hat trick in the first two periods and the Milwaukee Wave took a 20-2 halftime lead on the way to a 30-4 victory over the Pennsylvania Roar in a Major Indoor Soccer League game.

Milwaukee (14-2) extended its lead to a full game over Baltimore with four left to play in the MISL regular season. The Wave own the tiebreaker over the Blast by virtue of a sweep of the season series.

The Wave controlled action at will against the Roar (1-15), who also surrendered 20 first-half points on Friday in a 24-4 loss at Missouri.

Fabinho and Ian Bennett opened the Wave scoring with back-post finishes, sandwiched around a Pennsylvania goal by Max Touloute. From 4-2, the Wave really opened up the game on consecutive 3-pointers by Nick Perera and Olivera just 66 seconds apart. The first quarter ended at 10-2, and then Olivera and Marcio Leite tacked on 2-pointers in the first minute of the second quarter. From there, the Wave cruised to their sixth consecutive victory.

“We talked about respecting our opponent, and we said, let's just go put on a solid effort and get out of here,” said Wave coach Keith Tozer, addressing the concerns of playing a last-place team.

Leite also completed a hat trick and led the Wave with eight points. Bennett moved back into a tie for the MISL scoring lead at 59 points with his two goals. Keeper Marcel Feenstra ran his record to 11-1 and also bagged an assist on one of Leite's goals.

Milwaukee plays its final road game of the regular season on Friday, visiting St. Louis at the Family Arena at 7:35 p.m. The Wave then host the Missouri Comets on Sunday at 2 p.m. before closing the season with back-to-back home games March 1 and 2.