WAVES MAGICAL SEASON COMES ASHORE

“I’m proud of the team, I’m proud of the way they played sometimes it just doesn’t go your way, but they battled, so I was proud of them.” Stated Milwaukee Wave head coach Keith Tozer after finishing the playoff series against Missouri.

The Wave have been to the last two MISL Championships and looked to advance to another after today’s game against the Missouri Comets. Game 1 saw the Wave use a second half comeback to pull out a 12-10 victory. This time it was Missouri making a comeback, defeating the Wave 9-8 in game 2 of the series. It then went to a 15 minute mini-game three to decide who would advance to the MISL Championship. In that game the Comets scored late to get the win over the Wave.

In game 2 Milwaukee got on the board first when #21 Giuliano Oliviero, on a pass from #79 Hewerton, headed it into the net to put the Wave up 2-0. Missouri came back to tie things at 2-2 on a goal from #10 Jeff Hughes. The game remained tied heading into the second quarter.

Milwaukee goalkeeper #1 Marcel Feenstra kept the Comets off the board for the second quarter, and #26 Ian Bennett scored off an assist from #14 Nick Perera to give Milwaukee a 4-2 halftime lead.

Both teams exhibited strong defense and goalkeeping throughout the third quarter, but Milwaukee broke through when #77 Marcio Leite found #2 Tenzin Rampa to extend the Wave’s lead to 6-2. The Comets answered when #15 Coady Andrews rifled a three point shot past Milwaukee’s Feenstra. Going into the fourth quarter Milwaukee held a 6-5 lead over the Comets.

Oliviero and Hewerton connected once again at the beginning of the fourth quarter to push the Wave’s lead to 8-5. Later in the quarter #25 Brian Harris of the Comets scored to trim the Wave’s lead to 8-7. Both teams fought hard, but the Comets brought in a sixth attacker, and it paid off when #14 Leo Gibson snuck one past Feenstra to pull out a 9-8 victory, and tie the series up.

For game 3 the teams would play a 15 minute mini-game to decide who would move onto the MISL Finals. Missouri struck first with a three-point goal by Andrews to give the Comets an early 3-0 lead. Milwaukee made it 3-2 when #7 Luan Oliveira found the net. Milwaukee gained a 4-3 advantage when Hewerton put a well-placed pass from Oliveira past Missouri goalie #24 Danny Waltman. With seven seconds left #23 Byron Alvarez took a pass from #7 Vahid Assadpour, got the ball got past Feenstra, and Missouri pulled off the 5-4 win.

The Milwaukee Wave had a great regular season finishing with a record of 21-5 that included a 16 game winning streak. The annual Summer Soccer Showcase will take place on Wednesday, July 17th at 1 p.m. at the U.S. Cellular Arena. Summer camps begin in June, for more information go to www.milwaukeewave.com.