MILWAUKEE -- Trailing 10-2 at halftime, the Milwaukee Wave seemed destined for its sixth loss of the season and first one at Missouri this season. Not so fast. Behind a furious third quarter rally that turned an eight point deficit into a one point lead, the Wave grabbed a 15-14 victory from the jaws of defeat.
Hewerton led all players with seven points behind a two goal, three assist effort while Jonathan Greenfield notched a season high four points on the night. For Missouri, it was the MISL's top scorer leading the charge as Geison scored six points.
Both teams came out tentative to start out, going the first 10 minutes without a score. That all changed with the first points going up on the board. Milwaukee struck first when Nicolas Perera made a beautiful cutback and slotted the ball past Danny Waltman into the upper left hand corner. Missouri responded with back to back goals by Geison and Lucas Rodriguez to make it 4-2 Comets after one quarter.
The second quarter followed a similar script where an early calm gave in to a barrage of scoring. This time it was all Missouri, however. Byron Alvarez took a long pass from Waltman and blasted it past Marcel Feenstra to make it 6-2. Less than 45 seconds later, Neto took a loose ball and calmly placed it in the net to stretch the lead to six. Leo Gibson made it five unanswered for the Comets with his goal a minute later, making it 10-2 going into the half.
Milwaukee came out looking for blood in the third quarter, turning a 10-2 deficit into an 11-10 lead. Jonathan Greenfield opened the floodgates with a nice one-timer to make it 10-4. Ian Bennett added another four minutes later to cut the Missouri lead to 4. J.P. Rodrigues then really turned up the hit, hitting on a very long 3-pointer to make it 10-9. Hewerton completed the comeback 43 seconds later, using a great run by Marcio Leite to give Milwaukee an 11-10 lead.
The fourth quarter was fast and furious from the get-go. Milwaukee and Missouri traded goals in the opening minute and then did it again two minutes later. With the score at 15-14, the Wave's keeper Feenstra played the role of hero coming up huge time and time again as Milwaukee held on to the lead.
The Central Division Champions Milwaukee Wave, play their final regular season games on the road at Missouri on Sunday. The Wave will also face Missouri in the Central Division Finals.