Ladouceur, Defense All the Sockers Need to Stifle Strikers, 4-2

When the final buzzer sounded Friday night at the Met Center, Socker Coach Ron Newman thrust his fist to the ceiling and smiled broadly.

“That was a dandy tactical game, wasn’t it?” Newman said after the Sockers defeated the Minnesota Strikers, 4-2. “We used an extremely large amount of patience to knock off a very hot team.”

What was billed as a shootout of two of the Major Indoor Soccer League’s most potent offenses evolved into a match of ball-control and smothering defense by the Sockers.

With scoring machines Branko Segota and Hugo Perez sidelined while nursing injuries, Jacques Ladouceur, with two goals and two assists, provided the offense the Sockers needed.

With just under three minutes gone in the opening quarter, Keder took a pass from Ladouceur at the top of the box on the right side and sent a shot into the upper left of the goal, just beyond the reach of Striker goalkeeper Tim Harris.

San Diego dominated play until later in that quarter, with 15 seconds remaining, Ladouceur scored his first goal.

Gus Mokalis’ hard shot came off the boards on Harris’ left and went to Striker defender Dwight Lodeweges. Lodeweges cleared forward to Harris, but the ball went through the Striker goalkeeper’s legs. Ladouceur was staring at 12 feet of open goal and promptly made good on the opportunity to put the Sockers up by two.

He wasn’t done yet.

Midway through the second quarter, Ladouceur fired a behind-the-back pass from Harris’ left to Zoran Karic, who let go with a low liner from the top of the box, giving the Sockers a 3-0 halftime lead.

“I had no idea we would grab a halftime lead like that on them,” Newman said. “Going into the game, they were the hottest team in the league (winning six of their last seven). We merely cooled them off a bit. They will certainly be back.”

Minnesota did come back momentarily. Hector Marinaro scored his team-leading 19th goal of the season with just under three minutes gone in the third quarter.

Marinaro took a cross-field pass from Neill Roberts, dribbled past Karic and beat Socker goalkeeper Jim Gorsek to the short side.

Up to that point, Gorsek looked sharp and stood his ground during a few previous Minnesota flurries.

Gorsek faced 19 shots and made 11 saves.

“Jimmy was the key,” Newman said. “He held our defense together. When we would go through a lapse, he was there to rescue us. Give him a lot of credit for that win.”

San Diego put the game out of reach with four minutes gone in the third quarter. Ladouceur took Waad Hirmez’s left corner shot on goal and deflected it off his heel into an unattended goal.

“Words cannot express how big that goal was,” Newman said. “Minnesota was just starting to get a head of steam and ready to sock it to us. But we got to them first. It must have been a real letdown for them.”

Minnesota’s Steve Kinsey completed the scoring late in the fourth quarter with his 13th goal of the year.