Sockers’ Road Streak Reaches 12

As he has done many times during the past 13 months, Gary Hindley went to work Tuesday night in the Rosemont Horizon. This time, though, things were quite different.

Some things, that is.

Hindley, the former Sting assistant who had replaced Erich Geyer behind the bench 24 hours earlier, made his Major Indoor Soccer League head coaching debut against the Sockers. The result was nothing new, as the Sting fell to the Sockers, 4-1, in front of 3,855, the eighth-smallest crowd in Sting history.

“Welcome to the MISL,” said Hindley afterward. “There was some anxiety before the game, and also having San Diego . . . I thought (Socker goalkeeper) Zoltan Toth stuffed us. He played superlative against us.

“San Diego does so well at smelling when it’s their opportunity to score. I said between the first and second quarter that our inability to punish them when we had the opportunities was going to come back to haunt us.”

It did, as San Diego (26-9) overcame a 1-0 halftime deficit on goals by Waad Hirmez, Jacques Ladouceur, Keder and Kevin Crow to gain its 12th straight road victory.

Toth made 14 saves en route to improving his record to 12-5.

Dave MacWilliams’ first-quarter score, his fifth in three games, was the lone goal for the Sting, which outshot San Diego, 25-19.

“I thought Chicago let us off the hook,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said. “Good saves by Zollie and misses by the Sting was the difference. We were pleased to be (only) down 1-0 at the half.”

Hindley, the fifth coach in Chicago history--Bill Foulkes, Malcolm Musgrove, Willy Roy and Geyer were the others--was hired by Geyer as an assistant Jan. 16, 1987.

Geyer played in 78 games for the Sockers, from 1981-84.