Stars Stay Alive, Top Sockers : Zungul and Preki Up to Old Tricks in a 4-3 Victory

The “Yugo Duo” of Steve Zungul and Preki is as tricky as it is talented.

Just ask Zungul, who used a pick by Preki to get free for a game-winning, left-footed power-play goal early in the fourth quarter of the Stars’ 4-3 win against the Sockers Thursday night at the Tacoma Dome.

“We talked about that play before the game,” said a smiling Zungul, who was sold from the Sockers to Tacoma on Feb. 6. “We still have another few moves left.”

Spurred on by a loud crowd of 15,290, the Stars avoided elimination in the best-of-five Western Division final series. San Diego leads the series 2-1 with the fourth game in Tacoma Wednesday night.

Now, for that game-winning goal.

Just 50 seconds after the only penalty of the game was assessed against Socker defender Brian Schmetzer, Zungul smashed a left-footer from the left wing past Jim Gorsek.

“Gorsek held me down all game,” said Zungul, who was scoreless in the game until that point and had only two goals in the series’ first two games. “But his shoulder was down on that play and I scored at the right time.”

He had a wide-open shot because Preki picked off Cha Cha Namdar.

“Preki picked me on the blind side when I tried to tackle Zungul,” Namdar said. “They must have watched a lot of films on our defense.

“But I thought it was a foul. If I took a dive, maybe the referee would have seen it.”

Senior referee Billy Maxwell was a hot topic of conversation after the game.

The game’s only penalty was Maxwell’s tripping call against Schmetzer just seconds after the Sockers tied the game at 3-3.

“I came from the back and saw Fran (O’Brien) turn toward me,” Namdar said. “I tried to get the ball. He said I came in with my two feet. But there’s no way it’s a two-minute penalty. Not by any stretch of the imagination.”

Said Socker midfielder Jean Willrich: “It’s bad to decide a game on a power-play goal. This is ridiculous. Why don’t the referees give them the game?”

Coming into Thursday night’s game, Tacoma had scored on just 3 of 17 power-play attempts in the playoffs. The Stars were 11th in the league in power plays during the regular season and were 1 for 8 against the Sockers.

San Diego led the league with a 75% penalty killing percentage during the season and they had killed 18 of 21 power-play attempts (85.7%) in the playoffs.

Zungul’s goal won it, but the Sockers had their chances. San Diego outshot the Stars 35 to 19 and hit the inside of the post on at least six occasions. They controlled the ball in the Tacoma end for the final three minutes of the game when they played with six attackers, but Star goalkeeper Peter Mowlik was everywhere.

It was not to be the Sockers’ night. The Game 3 blues had hit the Sockers again. San Diego lost to the St. Louis Steamers, 8-7, in the third game of their playoff series.

“They (Stars) deserved to win,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said. “They had the atmosphere and the fans.”

The Tacoma fans sure made their Stars feel like stars at the start of the game.

A galaxy of stars pre-game light show led to colorful fireworks that were followed by an even louder than usual introduction of the players.

The Stars parlayed that pre-game atmosphere into immediate momentum, and their loose, nothing-to-lose attitude into a very spirited first-quarter performance.

Tacoma led 2-0 after one quarter.

Preki and Zungul were rifling shots on net and the Star defense was pressuring the Sockers.

This was definitely not the Star team that played in San Diego. Or the Socker team that scored 17 goals in the first two playoff games against Tacoma.

After numerous near-misses, Star defender Neil Megson blasted a left-footer from the left wing past Gorsek to make it 1-0 with 4:58 gone by in the first quarter.

A right-footer by Preki made it 2-0 late in the quarter. And it could have been a lot worse.

The Stars had the shots, momentum and crowd.

However, the experienced Sockers slowed down the tempo of the game and thereby quieted both the Star offense and their fans.

San Diego finally got on the scoreboard when Ade Coker scored on a rising right-footer 4:12 to play in the half. Coker was to the right of the penalty box when he lined the ball inside the far post.

“We weathered the storm,” Newman said, “and the game was in our grasp at 2-1.”

However, the Stars came out on fire in the third quarter and quickly made it 3-1 on a tap-in by Gary Heale at 2:31. Keith Furphy set up the goal with a perfect pass off the right sideboard.

“That was a bad goal to allow,” Newman said.

San Diego cut the lead to 3-2 on a left-footer from the top of the box by Segota at 9:29.

“We were back in the game,” Newman said.

Segota played with swollen muscle above his right knee and was not his usual quick self Thursday night.

“Every time I went up the field it tightened up and got swollen,” Segota said.

Segota’s goal made it 3-2 Stars entering the final quarter.

Just 19 seconds into the fourth quarter, Willrich tied the game on a brilliant solo effort.

Willrich got the ball at midfield, dribbled into the Star zone and unleashed a hard grounder that just tucked inside the left post.

“Great goal,” Newman said.

The next goal by Zungul was the game-winner.

“I’m very happy,” Zungul said. “This is the biggest victory for this franchise. And I’m very happy for the fans. Maybe Wednesday night we’ll see a sellout (20,284) and set a MISL record.”

And perform some more tricks.