Sockers Finding Shoot Touch in Win : Even Without Segota San Diego Defeats Wichita, 7-3,

A sign of the changing times:

Two years ago, a local pizza restaurant started a promotion, offering each ticket-holder a free pizza if the Sockers scored eight goals in a game and won.

The promotion was discontinued last year but reborn Saturday night, when the Sockers played host to Wichita. Only now, the offer was free pizza for six goals.

It appeared to be good timing. As Socker Coach Ron Newman said: “There’s been a rumor going around lately that we can’t score goals.”

Not only that, the Sockers were playing without their top scorer, Branko Segota, who suffered a pulled groin in a loss Wednesday night in St. Louis.

But the five-time Major Indoor Soccer League champions proved they can still show a home crowd a good time. It was pizza for everyone after San Diego beat Wichita, 7-3, in front of 9,372 fans.

“It does me good to see that we can still score,” Newman said.

There was good reason for concern coming into the game. The Sockers had scored just one goal Wednesday, the first time since 1984 that they had failed to score at least two goals in a game.

Not only that, but the Sockers were falling quickly out of site of first place. Even with Saturday’s victory, the Sockers (11-10) trail first-place Tacoma by six games. San Diego plays at Tacoma Wednesday night.

“I’m just trying to keep everyone going,” Newman said. “We’ve been playing well. We can’t let these losses get to us or it will all pile up. We can’t make losing a big issue.”

Saturday, the issue was winning. After Laurie Abrahams scored a goal 30 seconds into the game to give Wichita a 1-0 lead, the Sockers played a superb first half.

Julie Veee scored two goals, Jean Willrich had three assists and goalie Zoltan Toth was the backbone of a tough defense that limited Wichita, the league’s highest scoring team, to seven shots.

San Diego took a 2-1 lead on goals by Brian Quinn and Veee in the first quarter.

Although he didn’t receive an assist on it, Veee was most responsible for San Diego’s first goal. He fed Jacques Ladouceur with a perfect pass at center field, setting up a 3-on-1 scoring opportunity. Ladouceur controlled the ball in the middle before sliding a pass on the left side to Willrich, who then crossed the ball to the right side to Quinn, who scored.

Two minutes later, Veee posted up inside the penalty box and received a pass from Willrich. He spinned right against Mark Kerlin and beat Wichita goalkeeper Seamus McDonagh to make it 2-1.

After Wichita tied the score early in the second quarter, the Sockers began to dominate play. Fernando Clavijo made it 3-2 on a blast from the top of the circle that McDonagh never saw.

Veee and Willrich worked the give-and-go moments later, with Veee scoring for a 4-2 lead. The final goal of the half came on a nice individual effort by Cha Cha Namdar, who outmaneuvered Kerlin and fired a low shot by McDonagh to make it 5-2.

The Wings had a chance to close the gap before halftime but Kevin Crow, Namdar and Clavijo combined to stop a two-man Wichita advantage over the last 1:32 of the second period. Toth made a couple of key stops and the Sockers left the floor leading, 5-2.