Wisconsin Soccer Central

It took the Milwaukee Wave a little while to settle in on their new all-black field Saturday night.

But the Wave left the St. Louis Ambush in the dark in their home opener, scoring eight consecutive goals over the second and third quarters en route to a 9-3 victory in Major Arena Soccer League play.

Pablo Da Silva and Marcio Leite each had two goals and an assist as a crowd of 4,000 at the newly renamed UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena saw Milwaukee (4-2) beat the Ambush for the third time in as many attempts this season.

After Da Silva's opener 3:24 into the second, Chad Vandegriffe pulled St. Louis (1-4) level at the 7:17 mark. But Da Silva's second of the night, off a feed from Leite, started the decisive run for the Wave.

Da Silva set up Leite with 19 seconds left in the first half, and Tenzin Rampa (Madison West/UW-Milwaukee) scored the first of Milwaukee's six third-quarter goals with a bicycle kick 3:02 after the break.

Leite added his fifth of the season, Luan Sales Oliveira picked up his team-best eighth goal on a penalty shootout, Bato Radoncic scored his first goal for the Wave and rookie Anthony Arico got on the scoresheet before Ian Bennett matched Oliveira with his eighth goal to finish off the outburst. The nine goals were the most for Milwaukee this season.

Wave goalkeeper-assistant coach Nick Vorberg finished with 12 saves in the victory and lowered his goals-against average to 4.07 – that ranks sixth in the MASL.

Milwaukee, which played its first five games of the season on the road, plays at the Baltimore Blast (4-0) next Friday and Saturday. Those matches will use multi-point scoring, with 2-point goals and a 3-point arc.