February 17, 2023 – Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) – St. Louis Ambush News Release
Milwaukee Wave’s Qudus Lawal and St. Louis Ambush’s Zachary Druhe in action
(St. Louis Ambush, Credit: Milwaukee Wave)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin – The St. Louis Ambush dropped a 6-5 duel to the Milwaukee Wave Friday night at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. St. Louis drops to 5-9-1 on the season while Milwaukee improves to 10-3-1.
Within the first two minutes of the game, Ambush defender Zachary Druhe was sent to the penalty box for tripping, resulting in a Milwaukee penalty kick that Ian Bennett completed for the lone goal of the first quarter.
In the third and fourth minutes of the second quarter, Derek Huffmann and Alex Sanchez scored to give the Wave a 3-0 advantage. St. Louis got their first mark on the scoreboard when Brian Bement was able to get a foot on the ball before Wave goalkeeper William Banahene could grab it. The ball went between Banahene’s legs and found Robert Kristo, who put it in the empty net to make it a 3-1 contest. Huffman scored his second of the night in the eighth minute of the period when Ambush defender Pepe Junqueira cleared the ball away from a charging Ian Bennett, but the ball came off the boards directly to Huffman, who was in the right spot in the penalty area to bury it in the net.
St. Louis stormed out of the gate for the third stanza, with Marcel Berry scoring just 30 seconds in to make it 4-2. Milwaukee wasted little time getting it back when Huffman completed the hat trick in the third minute of the quarter. The Ambush answered in the fifth minute when Christian Briggs headed the ball into the crossbar and it rebounded to Billy Stimac, who put it on target for a 5-3 score. St. Louis shrunk the deficit to one when Briggs scored off a pass from Will Eskay in the fourteenth minute of the quarter to make it 5-4 heading into the final frame.
Milwaukee regained a two goal lead in the second minute of the fourth quarter when Mario Alvarez took a pass from Huffman and buried it to give the home team a 6-4 advantage. The Ambush crawled back within one (6-5) in the sixth minute when Stimac hit the upper net of the goal for his second of the match. With 2:16 left in the match, Lucas Almeida donned the sixth attacker jersey for St. Louis but the clock expired without another goal, giving the Milwaukee Wave a 6-5 victory.
The Ambush have two days before their next game. They return home for a Presidents’ Day matinee affair against the Dallas…