Overtime goal by Pat Kelly lifts Cedar Rapids Rampage over Milwaukee, 5-4

CEDAR RAPIDS — Four minutes into the game, the Milwaukee Wave extinguished all pregame energy from the U.S. Cellular Center crowd.

Once the Cedar Rapids Rampage finally found their mark, a late flurry helped propel them back into the win column.

Cedar Rapids scored twice in the final eight minutes of regulation, then a Pat Kelly overtime goal defeated the Wave, 5-4, Friday night in a Major Arena Soccer League Central Division game.

'When you have a deficit, there is a lot of game to play,' Kelly said. 'You've just got to keep chipping away, and we did. We got the payoff.'

Kelly's second goal of the season arrived via a beautiful rainbow assist from beyond the restart line by team captain Gordy Gurson, and the second-year defender punched it past the Wave goalkeeper with five minutes left in overtime.

The goal capped an exhaustive climb back from a deficit that began with a pair of Milwaukee goals in the opening four minutes.

Rampage forward/coach Hewerton Moreira called a quick timeout, settled his guys and first-quarter goals from Jonatan Santos and Joshio Sandoval helped Cedar Rapids knot the game at 2-2.

The Rampage offense went cold over the next 2 1/2 quarters, however, and the club was eight minutes away from a third-straight defeat when former Cedar Rapids Xavier state champion Charlie Bales announced his season debut with a powerful strike that trimmed the deficit to 4-3. Defender Pablo Da Silva delivered the equalizer one minute later.

'They say that being up two goals is the most dangerous lead in soccer,' said Bales, who returned to the team after a graduate assistant men's soccer coaching stint at Western Illinois University. 'So when we get that goal and we're crawling back in the game, I think we got the momentum. You could see from their faces that they kind of dropped off a little bit and let us start playing. … That goal really helped us out and carried us through the rest of the game.'

The Cedar Rapids defense, led by rookie goalkeeper Brett Petricek, held Milwaukee (1-3) scoreless for all but the first 13 seconds of the second half and overtime.

Gurson led Cedar Rapids (2-2) with three assists as the club notched its first franchise victory over the Wave.

'For us it's huge because we are directly fighting them for a playoff spot,' Moreira said. 'Confidence-wise it's good because we've been, the past couple of games, working hard but things were not coming out our way. Now, we worked hard and it came out our way.'

AT U.S. CELLULAR CENTER

Cedar Rapids 5, Milwaukee 4 (OT)

Milwaukee 2 1 1 0 0—4

Cedar Rapids 2 0 0 2 1—5

FIRST QUARTER

Goals —

1. Milwaukee: Max Ferdinand (Ian Bennett), 0:46; 2. Milwaukee: Robert Renaud, 4:03; 3. Cedar Rapids: Jonatan Santos (Gordy Gurson), 13:36; 4. Cedar Rapids: Joshio Sandoval (Jonnathan Pachar), 14:34.

SECOND QUARTER

Goals —

5. Milwaukee: Ian Bennett (Ricardo Sobreira), 0:41.

THIRD QUARTER

Goals —

6. Milwaukee: Sean Totsch, 0:13.

FOURTH QUARTER

Goals —

7. Cedar Rapids: Charlie Bales (Jonatan Santos), 7:37; 8. Cedar Rapids: Pablo Da Silva (Gordy Gurson), 8:08.

OVERTIME

Goals —

9. Cedar Rapids: Patrick Kelly (Gordy Gurson), 5:00.

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com