Match Preview 11/12 - Harrisburg Heat Face Off Against Milwaukee Wave

Heat Search for Consistency As They Look For First Win

By Max Stevens | harrisburgheat.com

For one quarter in their opening match against the defending MASL Champion Baltimore Blast, the Harrisburg Heat looked like a slightly better team than their interstate 83 rivals as they took a 2-1 lead into the 2nd period. For a half they looked like they could even play with the Blast trailing by just 2 goals at the half.

When the 3rd period rolled around, the very patient and skillful Blast took advantage of their opportunities. They distanced themselves from the Heat, scoring 11 total goals for the match before Harrisburg showed some grit late tallying three scores to make the final 11-6.

If Harrisburg wants to even their record against the Milwaukee Wave when they face off at Freedmont Mortgage Field at Farm Show Arena Saturday night, head coach Denison Cabral wants his team to display what it showed in spurts during it’s opening contest.

“We just didn’t have a good game,” he said. “It’s not a good time to not have a good game against the team that we played. (We) didn’t play with consistency.” Cabral wasn’t pleased with Harrisburg’s second half against the Blast.

“We didn’t play well enough to even challenge them after the second quarter. We created problems for ourselves,” laments Cabral.

The Heat got back to work this week and had a spirited week of practice. Cabral has been pleased with the way the team prepared itself for Milwaukee this week.

“We came back here on Monday ready to practice, we watched some film and corrected a lot things. We wanted to get ready for Saturday to challenge the Wave.” Cabral wanted to wait until closer to game time before deciding whether keeper Nick Noble or Hugo Da Silva would start in goal. He also promised some personnel adjustments but didn’t reveal them.

“A few changes, nothing that’s going to change the way we as a team are gonna play,” Cabral stated. “We will make some changes, we aren’t going to penalize anybody for playing well or not. Just tactically we have to make some changes and we have enough players to make those changes.”

Cabral has consistently praised both keepers for their work during the pre-season and that has continued into the first week of the regular season. He wants to keep it a healthy competitive situation between the keepers throughout the season, and has said he will continue to evaluate them throughout the season. His focus is on doing what is best for the team as it relates to playing time.

Stephen Basso, Tom Mellor, and Val Teixeira all lead the Heat in scoring with a goal and an assist each. Ricardo Carvalho and Ty “Dreads” Hall also have a goal each through one game. Netminder Nick Noble has an 11.74 goals against average through one contest.

Milwaukee (0-1) also comes in Saturday looking for a first win. Andre Hayne, Drew Ruggles, Hans Denissen, and Ian Bennett all have registered one goal in the Wave’s first game.

“They like to press,” sizing up the Wave, Heat Captain Val Teixeira says, “They have some fast players, creative, very skillful, they like to attack a lot, should be a great game.” Milwaukee lost two of their more experienced defenders in the offseason to Cedar Rapids.

“They have a lot of new guys (on defense),” said Teixeira. “We have to take advantage and score goals.”

Although he did not score in the first match, Max Ferdinand is also a creative midfielder who can cause problems for any team. Rafael Dias sports an 11.00 goals against average and and 0-1 record on the season in goal for the Wave.