The Milwaukee Wave recorded the sixth shutout in franchise history Saturday night - even though they had to play a defender in goal for the final 25 minutes.
Luan Sales Oliveira scored twice and Marcel Feenstra made seven saves before being forced out of the game with a knee injury in the third quarter as the Wave blanked the Detroit Waza Flo 4-0 in a Major Arena Soccer League match Saturday night in Melvindale, Mich.
Veteran defender Victor Quiroz, who usually plays as Milwaukee's sixth attacker when needed, replaced Feenstra in goal and stopped all four shots he faced to close out the rare clean sheet.
"I thought Victor came in and steadied the ship back there and we really didn't miss a beat," coach Giuliano Oliviero said in a post-game interview. (Listen to full interview below)
The Wave's past three shutouts have been on the road, with Saturday's performance following those at Monterrey in 2009 and at Baltimore last Nov. 23. The team's other three clean sheets in its 31-year history have been in Milwaukee, most recently in 1995.
Oliviero said Feenstra likely suffered an MCL injury and could be sidelined for the next few weeks. Player-assistant coach Nick Vorberg is the team's other goalkeeper, but he wasn't in uniform Saturday because the Wave typically include only one keeper on their 14-man game-day roster.
Goals by Oliveira and Philip Suprise (Milwaukee Pius) gave Milwaukee a 2-0 halftime lead, and Oliveira made it 3-0 with his team-best fourth of the season 6:25 into the second half.
Amilcar Herrera (Milwaukee Riverside/Marquette) finished off the scoring with his first professional goal just more than 7 minutes later, with Bato Radoncic earning his team-high fourth assist on the play.
It was the third shutout of the season in the MASL – Baltimore blanked Detroit 26-0 on Nov. 14 and Harrisburg 27-0 on Nov. 21 in multiple-point scoring games; both matches would have been 13-0 using single-point scoring.
The Wave (2-1) close out their five-game road trip to start the season next weekend, playing at the St. Louis Ambush (1-2) on Friday night and the Chicago Mustangs (1-2) – last season's Professional Arena Soccer League champions – on Saturday night.
"We've got an extremely tough weekend," Oliviero said.
Date | Opponent | Score | Goalkeeper |
---|---|---|---|
Jan. 18, 1986 | Chicago Shoccers | 2-0 | Tony Pierce |
March 6, 1993 | Denver Thunder | 14-0 | Tony Pierce |
Jan. 28, 1995 | Chicago Power | 16-0 | Victor Nogueira |
Nov. 22, 2009 | at Monterrey La Raza | 15-0 | Nick Vorberg |
Nov. 23, 2013 | at Baltimore Blast | 8-0 | Nick Vorberg |
Nov. 22, 2014 | at Detroit Waza Flo | 4-0 | Marcel Feenstra and Victor Quiroz |
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