Tony Walls gives Cedar Rapids Rampage another offensive weapon

CEDAR RAPIDS - Tony Walls started his indoor soccer career as a defender.

The 5-foot-10, 180-pound Cedar Rapids Rampage forward initially had a bit of an outdoor-to-indoor learning curve, but four years in and Walls continues to be an offensive weapon.

'Once I got more used to the boards and the movement and the helter-skelter kind of pace of the game, I found that I could be effective offensively,” said Walls, who will help the Rampage face the St. Louis Ambush (1-14) in a Major Arena Soccer League game Friday at 7:05 p.m. at the U.S. Cellular Center.

Walls, 27, helped his high school team win the 2008 Wisconsin boys' soccer state championship, then played collegiately for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

A draftee in the 2012 Major League Soccer supplemental draft, Walls spent his rookie season with the Chicago Fire. From there, he played three successful outdoor seasons with Rochester (N.Y.) of the United Soccer League and helped the Rhinos win the 2015 league championship.

In order to sharpen his skills during the outdoor offseason, Walls played three seasons of indoor with his hometown Milwaukee Wave, where he found more than just mere conditioning with 27 goals and 19 assists in 44 games with the Wave.

'Obviously for any player you get a lot of touches on the ball,” Walls said. 'Some players struggle with indoor because of the physicality of the game, but I think that's kind of the nature of the way I play.”

Walls was one of three former Wave players that joined the Rampage before the season to play for player-coach Hewerton Moreira, another former Milwaukee player. Walls has scored eight goals over the past six games and now ranks third on the team with 12 this season.

'Players are getting more supportive and comfortable playing with him and feeding him a lot,” Moreira said. 'He's a fantastic player. He can hold the ball. He's strong. He's been able to fight his way though and find some good goals, some ugly goals and some easy goals and hard goals. That's a combination that you need.”

Cedar Rapids (10-5) has lost three of five games and is in a tie with Milwaukee for second place in the Central Division behind Kansas City (11-4). The Rampage will be without defender Jonatan Santos and midfielder Angel Curiel as both begin a two-game suspension due to a franchise delay in the completion of their September trade from San Diego.

To supplement the roster, the club signed midfielder Tony Aguilar, plus defenders Josh Rife and Drew Ducker for the remainder of the season.

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com