WAVE DEFEAT AMBUSH IN EXCITING GAME FRIDAY NIGHT IN MILWAUKEE
In front of a large crowd on a busy Friday night in Downtown Milwaukee, the Ambush came in looking to play spoilers against the Milwaukee Wave who are in the midst of a playoff seeding push.
St Louis would open the scoring of an intense and physical game when Will Eskay would score at 8:01 of the first quarter.
At 13:58, it was John Eskay, who found the wide open Christian Briggs to increase the Ambush lead to 2-0.
At 3:32 of the second quarter, Salvador Nunez’s unassisted bicycle kick goal, brought the Wave within 1.
It would seem as a momentum shift had occurred when James Togbah was sent to the box for a handball in the box at 5:03, resulting in a penalty kick for Milwaukee.
The ensuing play saw Ian Bennett beat Paulo for the penalty kick goal leveling the score at 2 a piece.
The rest of the first was all Milwaukee as Alex Bradley found the back of the net at 12:18 of the 2nd.
With 00.4 seconds remaining on the clock, St Louis was called for a foul just outside the box.
The ensuing restart, saw Milwaukee’s Max Ferdinand score the goal just beating the buzzer at 00.1 seconds remaining on the clock, giving Milwaukee, the 4-2 advantage in to the break.
Goals were exchanged in the second half, beginning at 2:39, when Raphael Araujo capitalized on the powerplay when Milwaukee was called for too many men on the field.
The rest of the 3rd was fairly quiet until Javi Steinwascher, beat Paulo high, assisted by Alex Sanchez at 11:53, giving Milwaukee the 5-3 advantage.
At 13:22 JT Thomas cut Milwaukee’s lead to 1, when Will Nyamsi found the veteran whose goal just crossed the line much to the disagreement of Tony Walls who attempted to clear the ball off the line.
The 3rd quarter ended 5-4 in favor of Milwaukee.
At 2:02 of the 4th Alex Sanchez beat the unsuspecting Paulo, assisted by Breno Oliveira to reinstate Milwaukee’s lead to 2.
Much like the evening played out, the Ambush didn’t back down, and were never completely out of it, as JT Thomas would get his second tally of the night at 4:32.
With only a few moments left in the game, Milwaukee switched to a high press attack, where the dynamic Duo of Max Ferdinand and Ian Bennett cornered The Ambush’s James Togbah, his attempt at an outlet pass however was intercepted by Bennett near the box, who then slotted home past Paulo, to give Milwaukee, the 7-5 advantage and eventual final score.
Coach Giuls, gave St Louis a ton of credit tonight in his post match comments “Really tough game tonight, hats off to a very good Ambush team. Their record doesn’t reflect their level and high quality of their team. Coach Locker has done a great job, they have some great players. I think they really controlled and dictated the game more than we did tonight. I know we were missing a lot of guys and we’re not here to make excuses. The ball bounced our way at times, it didn’t bounce our way at times, but good teams find a way to win, and now we have to rebound and go to Utica on Sunday and go for it.”
Ian Bennett was tonight’s MVP with 2 goals, “Yeah the game was hard, we knew they were fast, they had some fit players, they have some good quality players. It was honestly a team effort today, everyone brought it, I think we had a lot of guys get on the scoresheet, but defensively we won the game. I think we gave up some cheap goals, but at the end of day, winners win! we have to get ready for Sundays game, because Sunday is another massive game.
The wave return home after away games in Utica and St Louis on Friday March 8th
Tickets are on sale now at MilwaukeeWave.com or at the Box Office one hour prior to game start.