(Detroit, MI) The Cleveland Freeze won their first ever game in Detroit as they beat the Waza Flo 6-5, in a hard fought, physical battle, to earn a spot bid into the PASL national semi-finals. In the four previous matches Detroit had a three to one advantage, but the Freeze got the last laugh as they ended Detroit’s season and their streak of making the national championship game two years running.

Cleveland opened up the scoring early off a shot from Steve Gillespie to quiet the packed house crowd. Waza Flo head coach and player Dominic Scicluna evened up the match late in the opening quarter, off a ball from defender Zack Wilkes. The teams headed to the second quarter knotted up at 1.

Cleveland wasted little time retaking the lead as Danny Bartulovic fired home a power play goal early in the second. With eight seconds left in the opening half, Steve Gillespie scored again, to send the Freeze into the intermission with a 3-1 lead.

The third period started off with some chippy play from both sides and Stefan Ostergren joined the Freeze scoring party to increase their lead to three with a power play goal. Matching penalties, had the teams playing 4-on-4 soccer for two minutes and the Waza Flo struck again from the foot of Detroit legend, Dominic Scicluna. The Freeze answered right back just 24 seconds later from Allen Eller who got his team back to a three goal advantage. With less than two minutes in the third, Waza Flo rookie Zach Bowman found himself on a break and converted the opportunity to cut the deficit to two, with just fifteen minutes left to play.

Just a minute into the final quarter, Detroit’s Michael Grba struck to cut the lead to one goal and energize a lively Detroit crowd. After killing a penalty, the Waza Flo found themselves again on the power play with a great opportunity to tie the game up after a boarding call.  During the ensuing timeout, the benches cleared and both teams made it very clear that they weren’t just going to roll over. The Waza Flo converted on a power play goal from Ricardo Lopes, assisted by Dominic Scicluna, to tie the game at 5-5 with just under five minutes to play in the game. The home team had an uncharacteristic defensive lapse with just 1:30 left and Cleveland’s Allen Eller bested Detroit keeper Joey Kapinos, to take the lead and again quiet the rowdy crowd. Detroit used a 6th attacker but could not find an equalizer as the Freeze edged out Detroit for their first ever win in the state of Michigan and to punch their ticket to Chicago, for next week’s semi-finals.

Cleveland will take on the undefeated Chicago Mustangs next week and the Las Vegas Legends will play the Hidalgo La Fiera for the right to hoist the Ron Newman Cup.