Strykers Suffer Another Narrow Loss, Falling 3-1 to Wave

Milwaukee’s Banahene, Correa shine in stingy team performance

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Milwaukee, Wis. — The Empire Strykers struggled offensively and fell 3-1 away to the Milwaukee Wave on Wednesday afternoon, suffering their fourth straight defeat and dropping to 1-4-0 (wins-losses-shootout/overtime losses) on their Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) campaign. Of the quartet of consecutive Strykers losses, the most recent three have come by one-goal or two-goal margins.

The Milwaukee victory came courtesy of a highly disciplined team performance on defense as well as standout showings from goalkeeper William Banahene and midfielder Cesar Correa. While Banahene stunned the opposition with 11 saves and a rare save percentage of 91.7%, Correa was involved in each of his side’s tallies, recording two goals and an assist.

In the scoreless first quarter, the Wave came significantly closer than Empire to taking the lead. The home side had several decent shots early, including a Cesar Correa effort that rattled the post. Having also survived a power play in the opening stages courtesy of some excellent defending, the Strykers twice had luck to thank late in the period. On consecutive giveaways with goalkeeper Brian Orozco pushed up as an added attacker, Milwaukee’s Shawn Azqueta and Javier Steinwascher aimed for the open net from far away but missed wide left and just high, respectively.

The Wave did make it 1-0 early in the second quarter, Alex Steinwascher scoring from indoor legend Max Ferdinand. Empire very nearly leveled things not long thereafter, as Mounir Alami smashed a left-footed cracker off the inside of the right post. Instead of Alami, the Moroccan’s teammate Abdul Mansaray found the net inside the second half of the period, pouncing on a poor touch by Tony Walls. Defender Walls didn’t get enough on his attempted header back to goalkeeper William Banahene, allowing Mansaray to make it 1-1 with a close-range finish.

The home side nearly reclaimed its advantage before the end of the quarter, Oscar Flores sprinting into the opposition half for a wide-open chance against netminder Brandon Gomez, who came off his line and threw up his right arm for a spectacular reflex save.

Gomez was left helpless on two straight occasions after the break. First, Correa made it 2-1 on an unassisted play that had some Strykers looking for a foul call on the play that had seen the third-year Milwaukee man win the ball in midfield. Correa subsequently collected a helper by pouncing on a bad Empire turnover, beating onrushing backstop Brandon Gomez to the ball and smashing it off the boards on the left. With Gomez outside his goal, Alex Sanchez enjoyed the easiest of finishes, as he slid into the pass centrally to find the open net.

In the game’s relatively uneventful final period, Justin Stinson had the best look for the Strykers. The St. Louis native came agonizingly close to pulling one back, rattling the left upright on a Robert Palmer restart. The visitors eventually threw caution to the wind by fielding a sixth attacker instead of a goalkeeper, but it only led to several unsuccessful attempts by Wave players to find the unguarded net at the other end from deep.

The Empire Strykers travel to face the San Diego Sockers this coming Saturday. The club’s next home game is a clash with the Tacoma Stars on Thursday, January 8. Information on Empire Strykers season tickets can be found here. Single-game tickets to all matches at Toyota Arena are available here.