When Zungul Talks, Blast Listens and Rolls to 10-6 Win

When Steve Zungul talked, he discovered that only the opposition was listening.

Zungul encouraged the Baltimore Blast to be more offensive-minded in Game 3 of the Major Indoor Soccer League championships Thursday night. And he told his Socker teammates to watch Stan Stamenkovic if Baltimore played a wide-open game.

The Blast responded with a carefree offense, but the Sockers seemed to be playing a could-care-less defense. Stamenkovic had four goals and one assist as Baltimore won, 10-6, in a physical game marred by a fight at the end.

“I told our players to keep Stamenkovic out of the (goalkeeper’s) box,” Zungul said. “Nobody did it. Hopefully, they’ll listen to me now.”

The Sockers now must start listening to Baltimore’s footsteps. The Blast trails the series, 2-1, but it is home again Saturday where it is 7-0 lifetime against the Sockers.

Baltimore made a complete turnaround from Game 2 to Game 3. In Game 2, Socker goalkeeper Jim Gorsek made six saves, a playoff record low, as his team won, 7-3. But in Game 3, Zoltan Toth made 23 saves as Baltimore took 51 shots, one shy of the playoff record it established two years ago.

“They said we just played defense in San Diego,” Stamenkovic said. “We scored 10 goals tonight against a very good team. We showed them we can play offense, too.”

Baltimore’s offense was ignited by Mike Stankovic at the outset. Stankovic, who missed the first two games with a sprained ankle, scored both Blast goals in the first quarter.

The Sockers talked a lot afterward about Stankovic and Stamenkovic, but they did not speak much about how the two influenced Baltimore’s offense. Instead, the Sockers reiterated a common complaint among MISL players that Stankovic and Stamenkovic play dirty and get away with it.

“Stamenkovic is such a crybaby,” George Katakalidis said. “He’s always taking dives. Stankovic pushed Cha Cha Namdar into the boards and didn’t get a foul called. They were both hitting our players, but what could we do? When we came near them, they would go crying to the referees.”

The Sockers cried foul when Stankovic did not get whistled for allegedly hitting Namdar during the second quarter.

“Right in front of our bench, he kept pushing me,” Namdar said. “A couple of times, he whacked me in the face in front of (referee) Gino Dippolito. Gino just said to play on.”

Said Stankovic: “I don’t know what they’re talking about. I don’t think we played that physical. There’s not as much space here as in San Diego because we have a smaller field. You don’t have as much room to move around. I think we just played with more intensity tonight.”

The situation became tense when a fight broke out at the end of the game. The Sockers said it started when Baltimore’s Jeff Prekazi kicked the ball at Brian Quinn. But the Blast countered that things would not have gotten out of hand had Ade Coker not joined the Prekazi-Quinn scuffle.

Coker had an ice bag on his face afterward. However, he said it was a result of being tripped in the third quarter by Baltimore goalkeeper Scott Manning.

“It was bad enough that they had been kicking us the whole game,” Coker said. “When they went after Brian Quinn when the game was over, that was wrong. They are dirty players, period.”

Said Dave MacWilliams, Blast captain: “If it had just been Prekazi and Quinn, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. When Coker went at Prekazi, I pushed (Coker) out of the way. I didn’t want him to blindside any of my teammates.”

The Sockers had six penalties and Baltimore had four. However, the only power play goal was scored by Baltimore’s Joey Fink with 1:50 left in the third quarter. It gave the Blast a 7-6 lead, which they turned into a rout with three fourth-quarter goals.

Fernando Clavijo scored two shorthanded goals for the Sockers. The team’s other goals were scored at full strength by Quinn, Zungul, Kaz Deyna and Branko Segota.

The Sockers trailed after the first quarter, 2-1, but scored three unanswered goals in the first 8:04 of the second quarter. Baltimore answered with three unanswered goals in the final 5 1/2 minutes of the half.

Segota tied the game, 5-5, 10 seconds into the third quarter. Richard Chinapoo gave Baltimore the lead with his first of two goals 34 seconds later. Clavijo tied the game for a final time with 2:11 left in the third quarter, scoring into an open net from 80 feet when he beat Manning to a loose ball.

Baltimore dominated the fourth quarter, but the Sockers did not go down without a fight.

“We didn’t keep our composure when the game started to get out of hand,” said Ron Newman, Socker coach. “When we got two goals down, we started worrying more about individuals than their team collectively. I don’t think either team was rougher than the other, but only one team got the calls. All of the critical calls went against us. If we have to play a seven-game series like this, there are going to be some problems.”

MISL CHAMPIONSHIP AT A GLANCE SOCKERS VS. BLAST (BEST-OF-SEVEN SERIES)

Game 1 Sockers 5, Blast 4 Game 2 Sockers 7, Blast 3 Game 3 Blast 10, Sockers 6 Game 4 Saturday Baltimore 10:30 a.m. Game 5 Tuesday Sports Arena 7:35 p.m. Game 6 Thursday Baltimore 4:35 p.m. Game 7 June 1 Sports Arena 7:35 p.m.

NOTE: Games 6 and 7 if necessary. All times PST.