Sockers Tire Out, Lose in Overtime, 6-5 : Newman Blames Fatigue for Fourth-Quarter Rally by St. Louis

Socker forward Juli Veee had perhaps the best description of the Sockers’ 6-5 overtime loss to the St. Louis Steamers Sunday afternoon at the Arena.

“It was a wide-open MISL game,” said Veee, whose second goal of the game at the 12:54 mark of the fourth period gave the Sockers a 5-4 lead and an apparent win. “With two minutes to go and a goal ahead, I expected to win and I thought it was over. But we kept trying to run with them in the second half and that killed us.”

St. Louis forward Don Ebert scored the winning goal at 4:11 of the overtime. He took a pass from defender Sam Bick and kicked it past Zoltan Toth.

St. Louis tied the game with the aid of a sixth attacker when Ricky Davis scored at 14:17 of the fourth period.

“Sammy gave me a great ball,” Ebert said. “It was a perfect ball and I had Toth in no-man’s land. Once Sammy got the ball in the corner, I knew that we were going to score.”

San Diego Coach Ron Newman said it was just a matter of time before the Sockers gave way.

“We looked very tired in the final period,” Newman said. “Fatigue was our biggest enemy in the second half. We played three periods up to our normal capability, but we did not play well after that.”

The Sockers set the tempo early. Veee scored his first goal when he kicked it past Slobo Ilijevski at 12:11 of the first period.

Hugo Perez put the Sockers ahead 2-0 at 1:23 of the second period. Perez’s first shot was kicked off the line by Steamer defender Carl Rose, but the rebound, was too difficult to handle.

Socker midfielder Jacques Ladouceur made it 3-0 when he hit a cross from Jean Willrich past Ilijevski at 12:22 of the second period.

St. Louis unleashed its attack when Rose scored his first of two goals. He hit a soft line-drive shot that went untouched at 13:15.

The Steamers looked to cut San Diego’s lead late in the second period when the Sockers got their sixth foul of the period at 14:09. But Fernando Clavijo picked up a loose ball at midfield and beat Rose and midfielder Redmond Lane and slipped a shot past Ilijevski.

The Steamers rallied with three goals. Defender Mark Frederickson scored at 6:23 of the third period off a pass from defender Steve Pecher.

Rose scored his second goal at 4:22 of the final period. Midfielder Jeff Cacciatore started the play with a pass to Rose, who was just outside the box and to the left of Toth. Rose hit a liner into the upper-right corner to cut the Socker lead to 4-3.

John Bandovic scored at 6:40 of the period to gain a 4-4 tie. He had the ball in the corner and got past Clavijo and kicked it into the upper-left corner. Clavijo protested that Bandovic had pushed him off the ball, but there was no penalty called by referees Bill Maxwell and Joe Manfre.

“There never should have been a fourth goal,” Newman said. “Bandovic clearly cleaned Clavijo and neither referee made a call.”

Veee then scored on a giveaway just outside the St. Louis goal. Pecher missed on a sliding tackle aimed at Willrich, who sent a pass to Veee. The pass bounced off defender Tony Bellinger’s knee to Veee.

Davis sent the game into overtime on a rebound as he was falling in front of the San Diego goal.

“We should have handled the ball better on the boards on the fifth goal,” Newman said. “Cha Cha (Nadmar) did not get the ball off the boards well and they scored. We did not get back fast enough on the last goal and it hurt.”

“We really outplayed them in the second half and that was the key,” said Pat McBride, St. Louis coach. “This win is probably the most emotional one for us this season. When you play San Diego, unquestionably the best team in the league, and you’re down 4-1 at the half, and you come back, that is quite an accomplishment.”

Said Rose: “We had to come back and fight to win this game. This is a very big win for us and it comes at a good time of the season. We were all over the floor and we worked hard for this.”

Socker Notes Kaz Deyna will miss Tuesday night’s MISL All-Star game in Chicago because of an injury. Coach Ron Newman has replaced Deyna with St. Louis’ Sam Bick.