Wisconsin Soccer Central

With a flick of his left foot Friday night, Lucas Rodriguez capped his hat trick and put the finishing touches on a lopsided win for the Missouri Comets.

It turns out the clever, curling 3-pointer in the final minute also provided an obscure bit of indoor soccer history.

The late goal capped the Missouri Comets' 22-4 rout of the Milwaukee Wave in Independence, Mo., in the first game of a home-and-home weekend Major Indoor Soccer League series.

A check of the team's record book showed it was the largest margin of defeat for the Wave in their 30-year history. Twice previously, Milwaukee had lost by 17: to the Kansas City Attack 25-8 on Jan. 25, 1992, and to the Chicago Power 17-0 on Feb. 5, 1993, both in National Professional Soccer League play.

Milwaukee (8-2) saw its four-game winning streak come to an end and fell into a first-place tie with the Baltimore Blast (8-2) - the Wave's only other loss also was to the Comets, a 15-6 setback on Dec. 13.

Ian Bennett and Luan Oliveira found the net for Milwaukee in its lowest-scoring match of the season; they also had only two goals in the earlier loss to Missouri, but both were 3-pointers that night.

The Comets (8-4) took the early lead through Rodriguez's power-play goal 2 minutes, 51 seconds in. The visitors pulled level just less than 4 minutes later when JC Banks (Milwaukee Riverside/UW-Green Bay) ripped a shot that Missouri goalkeeper Danny Waltman parried into the path of Bennett, who chested the ball in for his 13th goal of the season.

Leo Gibson was credited with the go-ahead goal at the 10-minute mark when a pass to the middle deflected off the Wave's Carlos Munoz and past keeper Marcel Feenstra.

Goals by Byron Alvarez and a 3-pointer by Brian Harris in a 34-second stretch spanning the first quarter break made it 9-2 at halftime. Oliveira pulled Milwaukee within 9-4 with his fourth of the season 9:04 into the second half, with Marcio Leite picking up his 15th assist - tied for the MISL lead.

But that was the end of the scoring for the Wave as Missouri scored the final five goals, with the last three being 3-pointers into an empty net with defender Victor Quiroz on in place of Feenstra as a sixth attacker.

Feenstra finished with 13 saves and allowed six goals, while Waltman stopped 13 of the 15 shots he faced.

The teams close out their weekend series on Saturday night at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Watch the full match on YouTube