Wisconsin Soccer Central

The Milwaukee Wave rallied from a three-goal deficit to take the lead in the fourth quarter, but the Syracuse Silver Knights equalized with 3:03 left in regulation and Nelson Santana's free kick 38 seconds into overtime gave them a 10-9 victory in a Major Arena Soccer League match Saturday afternoon at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

Tony Walls (Wauwatosa East/UW-Green Bay), Stefan St. Louis and Luan Sales Oliveira scored two goals apiece for the Wave, who had their four-game winning streak snapped. Heading into the final week of the regular season, Milwaukee (12-7)  is a half-game ahead of the Chicago Mustangs (11-7) for second place in the Central Division – the teams will meet in the first round of the MASL playoffs.

Matt Eisold (Burlington/Wisconsin Lutheran) made his professional debut for the Wave, becoming the fourth goalkeeper to play for Milwaukee this season. Jeff Richey, signed in December after Marcel Feenstra suffered a season-ending knee injuries including a torn ACL, suffered the same injury during practice Thursday.

Richey was set to be the starter for the rest of the season after player-assistant coach Nick Vorberg suffered a hamstring injury Feb. 7. Eisold, who plays for local amateur side Milwaukee Sport Club, has trained with the Wave during the season.

"I couldn't be prouder of Matt," Milwaukee coach Giuliano Oliviero said in a news release. "He made a lot of great saves today and played very smart. We could have done a better job helping him out on a couple goals, but overall Matt had a great game."

Syracuse (10-7) opened up an 8-5 lead, but St. Louis started the Wave's comeback with a power-play goal with 1:19 left in the third quarter. He added another 1:27 into the fourth, then Oliveira tied it on a deflected shot 55 seconds later and gave the home side the lead by beating two defenders and scoring just 73 seconds after that.

Oliveira is second on the team with 21 goals; teammate Ian Bennett scored his 34th of the season – which ranks eighth in the MASL – earlier in the game.

Eisold made a point-blank save on Syracuse's Jade Mesias with 8 minutes left, one of his 13 saves on the day, to preserve the one-goal lead, but the Silver Knights were able to level the score 5 minutes later. Neto fired a shot that was just wide of the goal, but Kenardo Forbes finished off the rebound to make it 9-9.

A foul early in the 10-minute overtime proved vital. Santana took the free kick from the top of the D and fired a shot around the wall and past Eisold to cap his has trick and give Syracuse its first win over the Wave in nine meetings all-time.

In addition to Richey and Vorberg, Milwaukee also was without defender Jonathan Greenfield and forwards Bato Radoncic and Tenzin Rampa (Madison West/UW-Milwaukee) due to minor injuries. Connor Brehm (Racine St. Catherine's) made his pro debut along with Eisold, and picked up an assist.

Walls was ejected after a sequence 4:28 after halftime. He received a yellow card for misconduct and a blue card for unsportsmanlike conduct – it was his second blue card of the match, which resulted in a red card. Walls will miss the Wave's regular-season finale against the Detroit Waza Flo (4-13) on Saturday. Kickoff is 6:05 p.m. at UWM Panther Arena.

• Milwaukee will open the Central Division playoffs Feb. 26 against Chicago at Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., with Game 2 set for March 7 at UWM Panther Arena. If the teams split the matches, a 15-minute mini-game will immediately follow Game 2. The winner advances to play at the Missouri Comets (19-0) in the divisional final March 12 in Independence, Mo. The conference finals and MASL championship will be home-and-home series.