St. Louis Ambush Fall Hard in Milwaukee

December 15, 2023 – Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) – St. Louis Ambush News Release

St. Louis Ambush’s Skylar Funk versus Milwaukee Wave’s Luan Oliveira
(St. Louis Ambush)

Milwaukee, Wisconsin – The St. Louis Ambush started Friday night’s game with a roar and ended it with a whimper. The Ambush fell 14-7 to the Milwaukee Wave at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The loss dropped the Ambush to 0-3-1 (wins-losses-overtime losses) on the season, while the Wave improved to 2-1-1.

The Ambush stormed out of the gate early when Billy Stimac scored just 31 seconds into the match, assisted by William Eskay. Just over two minutes later, Eskay scored and Stimac assisted to give the visitors an early 2-0 lead. St. Louis went up 3-0 when Robert Kristo took a shot that a Wave defender got a foot on before it made it into the goal in the ninth minute. Milwaukee got on the board in the twelfth minute when Mario Alvarez was able to scoot a low shot by Ambush goalkeeper Paulo Nascimento. Ian Bennett charged toward the goal mouth in time to connect with a pass from Marcio Leite to make it a 3-2 game with just over four minutes remaining in the opening stanza.

Milwaukee drew even (3-3) in the fifth minute of the second quarter when Nascimento was screened by a Wave player, enabling Alex Bradley to put a shot in the back of the net. The Wave took a 4-3 lead in the eighth minute when Bradley sent a pass to Salvador Nunez, who sent it to Bennett, who nailed his second goal of the contest. The Ambush knotted the score (4-4) in the tenth minute when Kristo nutmegged Wave keeper William Banahene. Milwaukee went on a power play in the thirteenth minute when Ambush forward Mike Da-Silva was blue-carded for tripping. The first half expired in a 4-4 tie.

Milwaukee’s offense went into overdrive in the third period, scoring seven unanswered goals. Just 47 seconds into the frame, Derek Huffman tapped a slow roller to Leite, who found the back of the net to give Milwaukee a 5-4 advantage. Less than a minute later, the Wave went up 6-4 on a goal from Javier Steinwascher. Three seconds short of the three minute mark, Cesar Correa beat Nascimento with a shot to make it 7-4 and prompting an Ambush timeout to regroup. In the seventh minute, blue cards were pulled on both teams when Nascimento was down after making a save and was kicked in the face by Nunez. Nascimento retaliated by swinging a foot at Nunez. After a video review by the officials, both players were sent to the penalty box…