Push Does Come to Shove as Lazers Lose to San Diego

With absolutely nothing to play for, the Lazers and San Diego Sockers played as if the world was coming to an end Saturday night.

They pushed, elbowed and pointed fingers at each other all evening--and they even played entertaining soccer for 10,624 fans at the San Diego Sports Arena.

San Diego finally won the game, 5-4, on fourth-quarter goals by Branko Segota and Steve Zungul. The Lazers made it a one-goal game on Greg Ion’s goal with 26 seconds remaining.

But the real story of the night was in the penalty numbers.

The Lazers had six penalties, the Sockers had five penalties. Each team had two misconduct penalties. San Diego was penalized twice and the Lazers once for having six fouls in a quarter.

“There was no reason for our players to play that hard,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said. “But once you get kicked, you play a little harder. When you get a little of that, it makes for a better game.”

The game was lowlighted by second-quarter altercations between Gus Mokalis of the Lazers and Brian Quinn of the Sockers that began with an argument. Then, Mokalis elbowed Quinn as he came down the field. Quinn retaliated the next time with an elbow to the face of Mokalis. Finally, both men received misconduct penalties.

“Maybe we did it because the referees were unsure about their decisions,” Mokalis said. “Maybe that made us get more aggressive.”

Quinn: “It was like an altercation. We apologized after the game. That’s it.”

As far as standings were concerned, the game was meaningless. Both teams already had secured byes in the first-round of the Major Indoor Soccer League playoffs.

But there were other considerations at stake.

San Diego won its 36th game of the season, tying the league record set by the New York Arrows in 1982. The Sockers could break the record tonight at Las Vegas in their regular-season finale.

The Lazers, who concluded regular-season play, were attempting to set a team-record 25 wins. Instead, they finished at 24-24 for the second straight year. However, the Lazers did set a team record of 232 goals in one season.

Zungul had one goal and three assists, assuring him of the league’s triple crown. He will finish as the league-leader in goals, assists and total points.

In addition, Segota scored his 100th point of the season. Zungul and Segota are the first teammates in the league’s eight-year history to score 100 points in the same season.