Wisconsin Soccer Central

Marcio Leite had two goals and an assist, Ian Bennett scored his career-best 37th goal of the season and Marcel Feenstra made 23 saves as the Milwaukee Wave fended off the St. Louis Ambush 6-5 in their Major Arena Soccer League regular-season finale Saturday night at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

Max Ferdinand's goal 30 seconds before halftime snapped a 3-3 tie and gave the Wave the lead for good in front of a season-high crowd of 5,671 as they posted their second one-goal win in three days. Milwaukee, which heads into the MASL playoffs next weekend, posted a 13-7 regular-season record for the second straight year.

The Ambush (5-15) scored just 52 seconds into the game and led 2-0 before Sean Totsch got the Wave on the board, scoring in his third straight game. Leite then had a pair of unassisted goals, the latter shorthanded, to put the home team ahead. He's third on the team with 17 goals; 12 of those have come in the past eight matches.

St. Louis pulled level at 14:08 of the second quarter, but Ferdinand quickly restored Milwaukee's lead with his 19th of the season 22 seconds later. Ferdinand then set up a goal by Tenzin Rampa (Madison West/UW-Milwaukee) for his team-best 19th assist – tied for seventh in the league – and Leite set up Bennett to make it 6-3.

Barring an outburst from another player, Bennett will finish second in the MASL with 37 goals, 10 behind Sonora's Franck Tayou. The 32-year-old Bennett ranks sixth in Wave history with 162 goals in regular-season play; Milwaukee coach Giuliano Oliviero is just ahead of him in fifth with 177 and teammate Marcelo Fontana is behind him in seventh with 153.

Bennett is well behind the Wave's all-time goal-scoring leaders, Michael King (536) and Greg Howes (334), but his strike rate is comparable. In 150 games over his seven-year career, Bennett is averaging 1.08 goals per game; Howes averaged 1.11 and King 1.02.

The Ambush scored twice in the fourth to pull within one, but couldn't find another equalizer against Feenstra, who was making his third appearance of the season after coming back from a torn ACL suffered last season. Player-assistant coach Nick Vorberg, the Wave's starting goalkeeper for the majority of the season, ranks fourth in the MASL with a 5.21 goals-against average.

Milwaukee finished the season with an average attendance of 3,503 for its 10 home games, fifth in the 20-team league. The Wave play host to the Chicago Mustangs (13-6) in Game 1 of the Central Division semifinals at 6:05 p.m. next Saturday, with Game 2 at 6 p.m. next Sunday in Hoffman Estates, Ill. – followed by the mini-game tiebreaker, if necessary.