WAVE ELIMINATES UTICA FROM PLAYOFFS SUNDAY AFTERNOON

After a hard-fought victory in Game One of the MASL Eastern Conference Semifinal Thursday night in Milwaukee, the series shifted to upstate New York for Game Two and what would be a forced 15-minute Game Three, in front of a ruckus 3000+ fans at Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, NY.
 
“It was a really intense atmosphere,” said Head Coach Giuliano Oliviero after the game. “Give Utica overwhelming credit for the game they played and the passion that their fans have; and they really do make a difference in this arena. They made it very difficult for us during both games.”

Both teams came out of the gates swinging in Game Two; matching each other’s emotion and energy. It wasn’t until halfway through the second quarter when Utcia started up the scoring and had a 2-0 lead going into the half. Milwaukee got things going late in the third quarter with a goal from Ben Ramin (Javier Steinwasher) and a pair of goals later in the fourth quarter from Derek Huffman and Marcio Leite.

City FC striker Cristhian Segura, who had the game winner against the Kansas City Comets in the play in game, would answer back with 1:25 to go in the fourth quarter and even up the series at 1 game apiece.

“We started to gel as a team and found that other gear late in the fourth quarter of game two but it was too late,” said Milwaukee Wave Forward Javier Steinwascher. “But going into the knockout game our mentality was, ‘let’s keep this good thing going’ and before you know it we found our stride and pulled out the win.”

The Knock Out Game; a fifteen minute Game Three, had all the intensity of Games One and Two and then some. Utica’s Steven Fernandez had City FC’s only goal while Ian Bennett (Luan Oliveira) and Shawn Azcueta (Derek Huffman) got the job done for Milwaukee.
  
“If you’re a pro athlete, no matter what sport you play, you live for those moments,” said Milwaukee Wave Midfielder Luan Oliveira. “You know, packed house; everything against you and you try to come out on top. I’m glad we did as a team but of course we are not finished with our ultimate goal.”

The Wave will head back home for a short week of preparation before taking on the Baltimore Blast in Game One of Best of Three series with date(s) and location(s) to be determined.

“Baltimore is the hardest team to play against in the playoffs,” said Milwaukee Wave Defender Marcio Leite. “It doesn’t matter if they’re having best or worst season; Baltimore is a different team when the playoffs come. We’re going to have to be very mature and have great concentration from everybody. They’ve got great leadership; great veterans players and they’ll do whatever it takes to try to get past us. We have great belief within our group that we can get the job done. We’re looking forward to it.”