• The Milwaukee Wave defeated the San Diego Sockers 7-2 to force a decisive championship game.
• Milwaukee scored seven unanswered goals, with Alex Sanchez scoring the game-winner in the third quarter.
• The Sockers played without three players who were suspended for disciplinary reasons and another who was kicked out of the league.

After rallying to win its first two series in the MASL playoffs following losses in Game 1, the Milwaukee Wave will have an opportunity to do it one more time.

This time the championship is on the line.

The Wave scored seven unanswered goals – albeit three of them into an untended net in the final 78 seconds – in beating the short-handed San Diego Sockers 7-2 on April 24 at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.

Midfielder Alex Sanchez scored what proved to be the winning goal midway through the third quarter when he booted the ball over the Sockers wall on a restart from the top of arc.

Game 2 box sore: Wave 7, Sockers 2

“I think just a change in attitude and mentality,” Wave goalkeeper Jerry Perez said in a television interview regarding the difference in Game 2 compared to the 5-4 loss in the series opener. “Them coming to our home and just taking over at our place, we wanted to do the same coming to theirs.

About 2.7 billion gallons of untreated wastewater was discharged into local waterways and Lake Michigan, according to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

Last week’s torrents of rain pushed Milwaukee into its rainiest April on record. Upwards of 6.69 inches of rain fell in the Milwaukee area from April 12 to 16, according to the sewerage district’s rain gauges. Flood warnings remain more than a week later in a dozen counties.

The systemwide combined sewer overflow, initiated at 8:24 p.m. on Apr. 14, lasted about 114 hours. The wet weather also resulted in several sanitary sewer overflows in the sewerage district’s isolated-sewer system.

In a combined system, a single pipe carries both untreated wastewater and stormwater. It makes up 6% of the sewerage district’s service area, and is located entirely within the city of Milwaukee and the Village of Shorewood. In an isolated-system, sewage and stormwater flow through different pipes.

In both cases, an overflow can mean elevated bacteria from untreated wastewater in local waterways.

The estimated total volume was of the sanitary sewer overflows was 11.6 million gallons, impacting West Allis, Milwaukee, Bayside and River Hills. Specifically, these overflows occurred at:

• W. Grant Street and S. 77th Street in West Allis;
• S. 43rd Street and W. Lincoln Avenue in Milwaukee;
• S. 74th Street and West Oklahoma Avenue in Milwaukee;
• N. Broadmoor Road in Bayside;
• N. Lake Drive and East Ravine Lane in Bayside
• N. Range Line Road and Milwaukee River in River Hills; and
• N. River Road and W. Greentree Road in River Hills.

An in-plant spill also occurred at the Jones Island Water Reclamation facility as a result of the intense rainfall. However, the sewerage district said that Lake Michigan and local waterbodies were not impacted. Work on this spill is ongoing.

By federal law, the sewerage district is allowed six combined sewer overflows per year. Since 1994, it has captured and cleaned an average of 98.6% of wastewater.

Last year’s historic August flood event led to about 5.14 billion gallons of untreated wastewater being discharged into nearby waterways and Lake Michigan. It was the largest systemwide since the Deep Tunnel was built in 1993.

Since 1995, the sewerage district has invested more than $580 million in green infrastructure and flood management projects to improve the landscape’s ability to hold onto water, helping to avoid overflows. 

Green infrastructure helps nature do its job by absorbing and storing rain and melting snow. It protects against flooding and excessive heat as well as improves air, soil and water quality, which can help the city better adapt to a changing climate.

Two bidders vie for MMSD contract worth up to $700 million over 10 years

Moonlight trip on rivers and into Lake Michigan brings renewed appreciation of Milwaukee

Caitlin Looby covers the Great Lakes and the environment for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact: clooby@gannett.com. Follow her on social media @caitlooby.

Caitlin is an Outrider Fellow whose reporting also receives support from the Brico Fund, Fund for Lake Michigan, Barbara K. Frank, and individual contributions to the Journal Sentinel Community-Funded Journalism Project. Journal Sentinel editors maintain full editorial control over all content. To support this work, visit jsonline.com/support. Checks can be addressed to Local Media Foundation (memo: “JS Community Journalism”) and mailed to P.O. Box 85015, Chicago, IL 60689.

This fundraising effort is made possible through our partnership with Local Media Foundation, a verified 501(c)3 nonprofit organization (tax ID #36-4427750) and EnMotive Company, LLC, a subsidiary of USA TODAY Co., Inc. USA TODAY Co., Inc. is the parent company of this publication.

The JS Community-Funded Journalism Project is made possible through our partnership with Local Media Foundation, tax ID #36-4427750, a Section 501(c)(3) charitable trust affiliated with Local Media Association, and EnMotive, LLC, a subsidiary of USA TODAY Co., Inc. USA TODAY Co., Inc. is the parent company of this publication.

A Milwaukee County judge sentenced Ralph Taylor on Thursday, April 23 to life in prison without the possibility of extended supervision, in the July 2025 fatal shooting of his 4-year-old son, Ralph Taylor III.