Orlando SeaWolves came back home on Monday night to face the red hot Milwaukee Wave and, after a very tight first three quarters, Orlando was able to pull away in the fourth quarter to win 7-4.
“It’s a really good win against a very, very good team loaded with fantastic players, a great coaching staff,” said Head Coach Tom Traxler said after the game. “For us tonight, to come in, to take leads, to surrender that lead and go behind, and then show the character to come back, retake the lead, and finish off the win, I couldn’t be anything but very pleased with my team tonight.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Milwaukee opened the scoring through Ian Bennett just three minutes into the second. The SeaWolves responded with back-to-back goals, the first from Gordy Gurson (pictured above) and the second from Osvaldo Rojas.
Orlando went into halftime with that 2-1 lead and came back in the third quarter and added on to it with a long distance strike from Edwin Rojas.
Then Milwaukee awoke and started the shift of momentum back to the away side. Three straight goals from the Wave at the beginning of the 4th quarter had the team up 3-4 on the SeaWolves.
With Orlando down in the fourth quarter, the home side went on a scoring rout. First, Mario Alvarez tied up the game with seven minutes to go in the game. Then, midfielder Richard Schmermund (pictured above) stepped up and delivered back-to-back spectacular goals, one from a free kick and another in the run of play, to put the SeaWolves up 6-4.
Osvaldo Rojas put the cherry on top of a spectacular night with a final goal with under a minute to play, to give the SeaWolves a convincing 7-4 victory.
“This is huge for the whole organization on a mental standpoint,” Midfielder Gordy Gurson said after the game. “Us beating one of the top two teams in the league right now. It’s just huge after some of the losses that we wish we didn’t have. It’s good to show that if we continue to do our game plan it doesn’t matter if we play the best team or the worst team, we’re going to be able to perform.”
The SeaWolves will play their next game back at home as they host the St. Louis Ambush on Friday, January 25th. Kickoff for that game will be at 7:35 p.m EST
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