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 The Milwaukee Wave's league-leading attack sputtered after a strong start Friday night, but that didn't stop the Wave from clinching the Major Indoor Soccer League Central Division title.
Marco Terminesi had a hand in all three goals, setting up the first two and scoring the third, and goalkeeper Nick Vorberg allowed just one late goal on a deflected shot as the Wave held off the Wichita Wings 6-3 in front of 3,241 fans at U.S. Cellular Arena.
Milwaukee's leading goal scorers, Greg Howes and Ian Bennett, had the other goals as the Wave improved their league-best record to 16-2 by winning their fifth straight game despite being held to fewer than 10 points for just the third time this season.
Bennett opened the scoring 7:34 into the match with his 16th goal of the season and Howes doubled the lead with his 20th off a restart at 12:01 mark. Terminesi made it 6-0 with a left-footed blast on a power play 3:28 into the second quarter, and it remained that way much of the night.
Vorberg, who was celebrating his 37th birthday, finished with 14 saves and was 2:10 away from posting the sixth shutout in team history – he recorded one in November 2009, while Marcel Feenstra had the most recent clean sheet last March. Counterpart Sanaldo made 10 saves to help hold the Wave in check, holding them well below their MISL-best average of 16.2 points per game.
With Sanaldo pulled for a sixth attacker, former Wave midfielder Angel Rivillo fired a long-distance shot from the left side that deflected off Milwaukee defender Joe Hammes (Cedarburg) and past Vorberg to pull Wichita (7-11) within three. But that's all the Wings would get as they fell to 1-6 against the Wave this season.
Terminesi has 12 goals, seven assists and 34 points for the season – all in the past seven games – for Milwaukee, which plays host to the Missouri Comets (12-8) in its regular-season home finale at 3 p.m. Sunday.
Defender Evan McNeley returned to action after missing the past seven games for the Wave, who lost defender Jonatan Santos to a possible season-ending knee injury suffered in practice earlier this week.
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