Sockers Score an Off-The-Wall Win : Perez Turns Deflection Into the Game-Winning Goal, 4-3

The Sockers beat the Chicago Sting, 4-3, Saturday night on an off-the-wall goal.

Truly, that’s what it was.

A physical game between two former North American Soccer League outdoor rivals was decided by a typically indoor goal.

With 1:48 left and the Sockers on a power play, Jean Willrich banged the ball off the right sideboard in front of the Chicago goal.

In order to give the Socker a two-field player advantage, defender Kevin Crow was playing as the goalkeeper.

Hugo Perez was there to send the rebound into the net.

“Sometimes you try to set it real nice and nothing happens,” Willrich said. “This time, the ball went right through all those legs and straight to Hugo.”

Willrich hadn’t scored a point all season and his shots Saturday night were closer to the red seats than the Chicago goal.

Then came the home-board advantage.

Perez parked himself in the center of the penalty box and flicked Willrich’s ball off his head into an open net.

“Gene’s ball deflected when it hit the board and the keeper missed it,” Perez said. “That’s luck.”

Luck has a way of finding the Sockers. San Diego (3-1) has won two games by a goal and the other by two goals. The Sockers have an overall mark of 7-0 against the Sting in the Major Indoor Soccer League, with five of the games being decided by one goal.

Chicago (0-2) outshot the Sockers, 34-28, but San Diego converted two of six power-play attempts and held the Sting scoreless on four power-play attempts.

Teams in the MISL joke that the talented Sockers should give their opponents a man advantage to help even things up.

San Diego and the officials are cooperating, but it doesn’t seem to be any kind of equalizer.

The Sockers have killed 14 of 15 penalties this season. Saturday night, Fernando Clavijo even scored a short-handed goal.

A crowd of 10,290 fans at the Sports Arena will remember the spirited play of the “No Goal Patrol.”

There was Kevin Crow diving, Clavijo sliding, Cha Cha Namdar darting from side to side and Brian Schmetzer pounding the ball off the boards.

And don’t forget goalkeeper Jim Gorsek, who made 17 of his 19 saves in the first half.

The Sting had four power-play attempts in the opening 20 minutes of the game. At a time when the Sockers would have felt fortunate to not fall behind, they actually took a 3-0 lead.

Forward Steve Zungul led off the scoring with a power-play goal at 2:44 of the first quarter. Zungul took a pass from Branko Segota and drilled a bouncer into the far corner.

Perez scored his first goal of the night on a left-footer from the left of the penalty box to make it 2-0 late in the first quarter.

With the Sockers short-handed,Clavijo went the length of the field and drilled a 25-footer past goalkeeper Victor Nogeira to make it 3-0.

It appeared San Diego had the game in hand.

But the Sting fought back on a second-quarter goal by defender Neill Roberts and third quarter goals by Labud Pejovic and Manny Rojas.

The Sockers had their chances to take the lead early in the fourth quarter, but they couldn’t seem to straighten out their shots.

“We played right,” said Sockers Coach Ron Newman, “but our shooting was off.”

Off the wall.