Wisconsin Soccer Central

The Milwaukee Wave beat the expansion St. Louis Ambush for the second time in six days Friday night.

But the second meeting between the teams was vastly different than the Wave's blowout victory last Saturday in Milwaukee.

Brazilian defender Pablo had a hat trick and countryman Marcio Leite scored what proved to be the game-winning goal as the Wave rallied in the fourth quarter and held off the host Amush 13-11 in a Major Indoor Soccer League match.

JC Banks (Milwaukee Riverside/UW-Green Bay) and defender Victor Quiroz also found the back of the net as Milwaukee (7-1) won its third in a row and remained atop the MISL standings.

The Wave routed St. Louis 24-4 on Saturday night at U.S. Cellular Arena, rattling off 10 consecutive goals, but the MISL newcomers put up quite a fight this time.

Milwaukee outshot the Ambush (3-6) by a 51-26 margin on the night, but St. Louis blocked 20 shots and goalkeeper Jeff Richey made 25 saves to hold his former team at bay. Pablo's goals in the first and second quarters were the only points for the Wave through three quarters, as Milwaukee trailed 6-4 heading into the final period.

The visitors pulled level just 28 seconds into the fourth when Banks finished off a feed from player-coach Giuliano Oliviero on a 3-on-2 for his fourth goal of the year, then went ahead 2:21 later when Pablo capped his hat trick with a left-footed strike from beyond the arc - it was the Wave's league-leading 11th 3-pointer of the season.

Kory Dowell answered for the Ambush 59 seconds later, ripping a 3-pointer past Wave keeper Marcel Feenstra from the right side, but Leite found Quiroz alone on the back door off a restart and the veteran fired a shot past Richey into the upper right corner to make it 11-9.

With time winding down, Leite did the hard work and was rewarded with an important insurance goal. He won a ball near midfield and found Nick Perera on the left boards, and the striker played it back for Leite to tap in his fifth goal of the season and a 13-9 advantage with 2:11 remaining.

Michael Roach, who scored both goals for St. Louis in Saturday's loss, headed in a feed slammed off the end boards by Dan Antoniuk with a sixth attacker to get the Ambush within two with 36 seconds to go, but the Wave were able to see out the victory.

Feenstra, starting his third straight game with Nick Vorberg sidelined because of a sprained wrist, finished with seven saves for Milwaukee. Carlos Munoz was held off the scoresheet, the first time this season he hasn't recorded a goal or an assist.

The game originally was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, but was moved up because the Rochester Lancers were unable to travel to St. Louis in time for their scheduled match Friday night. The matchups were flipped and the Lancers will face the Ambush on Saturday.

Milwaukee now has eight days off until its next match, Jan. 11 against Rochester back home at U.S. Cellular Arena.

Watch the full match on YouTube