DETROIT – Detroit Waza Flo's Major Arena Soccer League professional indoor team traveled to Rochester New York this weekend to face rival Rochester Lancers in a multi-point scoring match where they were defeated 25-13 with plenty of action.
Before Owner Dominic Scicluna could get his team on the bus for New York on Friday, the taunting from their beloved rival began through a video posted on social media from a member of the Lancers, who calls himself the #MohicanWarrior (Elliott Fauske) and he had his dog, "the leader of the pack", the #ChiwawaWarrior. The WWE style type taunting began saying that #ChiwawaWarrior felt that the Detroit Waza Flo "were looking like a Detroit dog treat" and saying that Motown has no more soul and that they "will be ready to take on the Detroit Waza Flo."
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Detroit's Scicluna responded while on the bus to New York saying they were the #CherokeeWazaFloWarriorNation and that he had them "all locked up on a cage on wheels" and he had the "#SoccerLions on the bus with him and he was not going to feed them before gametime." Scicluna went on to say he was the #SoccerWazaDoberman and then began to state a rap which included "coming at ya, born to catch ya, no need to get ya because we've got the Motown Soul Flo ... score me a goal, it's a Detroit Waza Flo" and ended the video saying "We're Coming To Get Ya."
The fans ate this up on the Major Arena Soccer League Fan Group Facebook site and the link was also shared on each of their personal sites. Whether Waza Flo plays at home or away, the team is also energized and bring entertaining style of play and action to the field. Scicluna himself will even put on a soccer juggling display midfield for the fans and when they are away, the Waza Flo always have a line of autographs, gain new followers and fans and the respect from the opponents.
This loss was unfortunately yet another to add to the record for Waza Flo, however despite the score, the games are never felt as decided until the end as they continue to give their all and surprise and delight the fans and opponents. This night the fans even got into the action when a call was made on the field during a scuffle in which the Waza Flo Head Coach, Costeau Decu was issued a red card. The fans felt that the call was made on the wrong player however and everytime Miki Djerisilo touched the ball, an echo of boos could be heard. At the end of the game, the fans even appreciated Miki and are happy to see plenty of action in the MASL.
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Multi-point scoring was used for goals depending on the distance where the shot took place as that is the format Rochester a few other teams in the league continue to used which is carried over from their former MISL league. Detroit however uses single-point scoring when at home.
In Saturday's match, Detroit scored 6 goals with all but one being for 2 points and the 3rd goal of the night scored by Decu was worth 3 points for a total of 13 on the night. Rochester scored 12 goals with the 8th being for 3 points and they also saw their player, Andrew Hoxie, score 4 goals on the night and provide 3 assists along with Tim Crawford scoring his first career goal for the Lancers.
Waza Flo scored their first goal on the night at 5:23 in the 1st quarter of action when Sam Fiore would bury a shot that Miki assisted on to tie the game. Victor Otieno came up with the 2nd goal in the 2nd quarter at 6:33 which was assisted by Fiore. Decu scored the 3 point goal unassisted in the 2nd quarter to make it 17-7 at halftime. Zane Polack picked up the momentum when Zach Bowman fed Zane Polack for a goal at 10:39 in the 3rd and Bowman ran past the Lancers bench making sure they knew that Detroit was not backing down. To the "delight" of fans, the next goal was scored by Miki Djerisilo on a Detroit powerplay at 7:04 in the 4th quarter and the final goal of the night was by Alargie Jobe for 2 points at 11:04 in the 4th.
Detroit's goaltender Zach Halterman made some great saves on the night trying to keep Waza Flo into the match for as long as possible. The rest of the team, including Chris Williams would take numerous shots as well at the top of the box and do a great job trying to slow down the Lancers attack. Later in the 4th quarter, a Rochester player would get plenty of time in the box when during a timeout was called and while on the field, he proceeded to imitate a Detroit player by flopping on the ground, got up, and flopped down again.
Another fan delight, was when Detroit owner Scicluna was on the bench awaiting his turn to sub and the Lancer arena's "KISS CAM" turned to him and with no hesitation, he began to blow kisses to the camera and fans which brought the fans to a roar of laughter.
The MASL Eastern Division standings now show Baltimore in the lead with 10-0, Rochester moves to 3rd place at 5-6 and Detroit to 4th at 3-9. Detroit still has 8 games left in the season however and plenty of time to move up in the rankings and 5 of those are home which is when they have more of their players available for action.
The next home game for Detroit Waza Flo is this Saturday at 7:05pm when they take on the 1st place Baltimore Blast at the Melvindale Civic Arena (4300 S Dearborn St, Melvindale, MI 48122).
Tickets prices are Adult $12 and Children ages 3-12 years $8 can be purchased online.
The full schedule can be found here.