Wisconsin Soccer Central

Tony Walls (Wauwatosa East/UW-Green Bay) and the Rochester Rhinos have been the USL's top team all season, and on Saturday night they became the first team to clinch a playoff berth.

Walls converted a penalty kick in the 16th minute as the Rhinos cruised past the Harrisburg City Islanders 4-0 in Rochester, N.Y., to improve to 14-1-8 on the season.

Rochester, which has allowed a league-low 12 goals this year, has 50 points and a five-point lead atop the Eastern Conference. The top six finishers in each of the two 12-team conferences qualify for the postseason.

It was the third goal of the season for Walls, the team captain, and the first penalty awarded to the Rhinos this year. He was named to the USL Team of the Week for his performance in the victory, Rochester's 14th clean sheet of the season.

On Twitter: @TWalls20

• Andrew Stadler (Wauwatosa West) is off to a great start with his new team in Sweden's second-tier Superettan. The 27-year-old scored an 88th-minute game-winner in his debut for Östersunds FK (Watch highlights below), a 2-1 victory over IF Brommapojkarna on Aug. 8, then had an assist in Monday's 5-1 rout of Utsiktens BK5. Stadler has 12 goals in 23 appearances overall this season for Landskrona BoIS and Östersunds FK (13-2-6), which is second in the 16-team Superettan. On Twitter: @AndrewStadler

• Hannah Kernen (Belleville/Sugar River/UW-Green Bay) assisted on the opening goal and converted her kick from the spot in the shootout as Täby FK outlasted host FC Djursholm 5-4 on penalty kicks following a 3-3 tie in a Swedish Cup second-round match on Aug. 18. Kernen set up Julia Norén's 18th-minute goal for Täby FK, which plays in the third-tier Division 1 Norra Svealand and will play host to AIK from the top-level Damallsvenskan in the third round next month.
• Andrija Novakovich (Muskego) scored his first goal of the season as host Reading topped Liverpool 2-1 in an Under-21 Premier League Division 1 match Monday night in England. (Watch highlights below) Novakovich, who turns 19 next month, finished off a combination sequence with Conor Shaughnessy and Rowan Liburd by scoring from about 16 yards out in the 35th. On Twitter: @AndrijaNovakov3

• The Major Arena Soccer League announced several rules changes for the 2015-16 season, mostly focused on player safety and penalties. Among the changes: any player engaging in a two-footed tackle, regardless of whether or not they win the ball, will be assessed a 2-minute penalty; players will be subject to fines and other punishments for diving or embellishment – teams will have 48 hours after a game to submit a request for the league to investigate such allegations; players will be ejected from a game if they commit six fouls in a match; and a point system will be implemented for card accumulation, with suspensions for reaching levels. Teams also will no longer be allowed to have their head coach rostered as a player, and game-day rosters will be expanded to 15 players. The MASL will open its second season on Nov. 1, with teams playing a 20-game regular-season schedule. The league will have at least 20 teams for the upcoming season, with the possibility of two more expansion teams joining the MASL. Divisional placements haven't been announced, but it looks like the Milwaukee Wave's rivals likely will include the Chicago Mustangs, Missouri Comets, St. Louis Ambush and the expansion Cedar Rapids Rampage, and possibly the Detroit Waza Flo or a new Cincinnati team.