Toth Lends a Hand in Socker Win

Sockers goalkeeper Zoltan Toth helped keep the Sidekicks Tuesday from getting their first victory against San Diego by collecting a couple of firsts for himself and his club.

Toth scored his first career goal--and the first goal by a San Diego goalkeeper--shorthanded with 12 seconds left to seal the Sockers’ 5-3 victory in front of 5,525 at Reunion Arena. The goal, which came on a 190-foot throw on an open net, secured San Diego’s ninth victory in nine career meetings with the Sidekicks (17-9). The Sockers (14-11) also won for the fourth time in five games and snapped Dallas’ two-game winning streak.

“That goal was for the fans behind the net,” said Toth, who made seven saves on 14 shots. “They were throwing coins and screaming at me all night.”

Although Branko Segota got the game-winner at 1:50 in the fourth period to make it 4-2, Toth’s goal silenced a comeback bid by the Sidekicks, who had pulled within one at 11:14 on Mark Karpun’s 11th goal of the year.

Dallas went to a sixth attacker with 1:35 remaining and got a big break when the Sockers were called for a sixth-foul penalty at 14:22. But after Toth caught a shot by David Stride with 22 seconds remaining, he threw the ball downfield in front of the red line and then watched it roll ahead of sixth-attacker Kevin Smith into the open net to make it 5-3.

“In my mind, I was thinking, ‘Don’t give up the rebound, don’t let it go off your hands,’ ” Toth said of Stride’s shot. “Then on the throw, I wasn’t thinking of scoring. I was going for the left corner and I just put some spin on it. I thought maybe it would go off the goal post. I was lucky.”

The way the Sockers outplayed them, the Sidekicks were lucky to only lose by two. Outshot, 24-14, Dallas was caught off-balance most of the night by San Diego’s transition game. Yet, Dallas led, 2-1, at the intermission primarily because the Sockers failed to put away opportunities.

“Our finishes were terrible,” said Hugo Perez, who scored twice in the third period to give the Sockers a 3-2 lead. “But as a team, defensively we played really well.”

“They’ve got so much speed and they’re so good at getting people on and off the field on changes,” Sidekicks Coach Gordon Jago said. “They created three-on-two and three-on-one breaks all night long. The brilliance of (goalkeeper Krys) Sobieski kept us in that game.

Sobieski made 11 saves on 16 first-half shots. But when he failed to clear the ball in front of the right post early in the third period, Waad Hirmez passed to Perez, who scored easily on the open net to make it 2-2. Perez then used a pass from Juli Veee on a power play to make it 3-2 at 13:13.