Sockers Lose Cool, Win Game
SAN DIEGO-A brief loss of composure led to a prolonged period of excellence for the Sockers in their 10-4 playoff win against the Tacoma Stars Wednesday night at the Sports Arena.
San Diego is 24-0 in home playoff games and leads this best-of-five Major Indoor Soccer League Western Division final series, 1-0.
Branko Segota had two goals and five assists, Juli Veee, Wadd Hirmez and Hugo Perez scored two goals apiece and Kevin Crow and Jacques Ladouceur added one each for the Sockers. Former Socker Steve Zungul was held to one goal.
“We got an old fashioned spanking by a machine called the San Diego Sockers,” said Tacoma Coach Alan Hinton.
Early in the third quarter, a blowout by the Sockers seemed improbable unless you are familiar with how the San Diego players deal with adversity.
They thrive on it.
“We are all fighters with a lot of character,” said Socker defender George Katadalidis. “No matter how bad things are, we don’t quit.”
And things were pretty bad.
The score was tied, 3-3, early in the third quarter when San Diego captain Jean Willrich was called for a two-minute dissent penalty.
When Willrich argued vehemently with senior referee Toros Kibritjian, he was given a red card, which is an automatic ejection and five-minute penalty.
“They (referees) make it difficult for both teams,” Willrich said. “They are trying to dominate in the playoffs like they didn’t do in the regular season.”
Seconds after Willrich walked off the field to the locker room, Socker forward Ade Coker received a two-minute penalty for ungentlemanly conduct.
Suddenly, the Sockers were two men down for two minutes and one man down for another three minutes.
“We had to bloody dig deep down,” said Socker Coach Ron Newman. “It was all our doing. I can’t blame the officials for what happened. Cheezy (Willrich’s nickname) lost his head. He can pat his teammates on the head for pulling this one out for him.”
Fernando Clavijo, Brian Quinn and Kevin Crow killed 1:12 of the first penalty before Zungul was called for a two-minute tripping penalty.
During that stretch of 1:12, the Stars hit the post on three occasions, but the ball had Socker eyes.
When asked about his three-man defense, Newman said: “We prayed a lot. After they hit the post all those times, they must have thought it wasn’t their day.”
They would have been right.
Moments after Zungul’s penalty, with the teams playing four-on-four, Veee received a pass from Segota, posted a defender in the penalty area and hit his patented turnaround kick into the net to make it 4-3.
Eighteen seconds later, Veee scored off a lead pass from Segota to make it 5-3.
“Tonight, I was fast like Casper,” said Veee, who has had the flu this week. “Branko exploded like Amtrak and he found me.”
Said Newman: “I have to talk about Juli tonight. He was back to his best tonight.”
Inspired by those two goals by Veee during a period in which the Stars should have been the team on the offensive, the Sockers dominated the rest of the game.
Hirmez scored on a power play with 7:49 to play in the third quarter to make it 6-3. Keith Furphy made it 6-4 entering the final quarter, but the momentum was going the Sockers’ way.
In the final quarter, Perez added two goals and Segota and Ladouceur scored to cap off a tremendous performance.
“We felt that if we could kill that penalty when we were down two men,” said goalkeeper Jim Gorsek (8 saves on 21 shots), “we would have the momentum.”
San Diego had the momentum at the start of the game.
They controlled play in the early going, but Zungul caught the Sockers on a bench change and scored the first goal of the game on a right-footer from the right wing to make it 1-0 midway through the opening quarter.
With Quinn and Gary Heale serving unsportsmanlike conduct and both teams playing with four field players, the Sockers scored twice within 52 seconds to take a 2-1 lead.
Segota blasted a right-footer from the left wing past Peter Mowlik to tie it at 1-1. Crow, left unmarked in the penalty area, took a pass off the board from Segota and knocked it in from point-blank range.
With 20 seconds to play in the quarter and San Diego on the power play, Hirmez lined a left-footer into the net from the right wing.
The Sockers had numerous chances to add to their lead early in the second quarter, but Mowlik and a magnet that seemed to keep the ball out of the Tacoma net kept the Stars in the game.
Midway through the second quarter, Wegerle scored a power play goal to make it 3-2. With 4:48 remaining in the quarter, Preki hit a bouncer past Gorsek from inside the penalty area to tie the score.
It wasn’t until the Sockers momentarily destructed that they went on to dominate.
“The guys got together and everyone gave a little extra with Jean out,” Veee said. “This was one of the best performances this team has had.”
