Sockers Edge Undermanned Cleveland, 5-3
It has to go down as the most embarrassing Socker victory of the season.
Somehow, an incredibly undermanned Cleveland Force team, playing without six injured regulars and with a midfielder as its goalkeeper for most of the game, lost to the powerful Sockers, 5-3, on two fourth-quarter goals.
“I much prefer them to have all their players and goalkeeper,” said Socker Coach Ron Newman. “In these situations, it’s almost embarrassing for us to play. It’s embarrassing if we don’t destroy them.
“This always goes on when a team has no chance, and they had no chance. If they stay within three goals of us, it’s a moral victory.”
The score was tied, 3-3, when Socker defender Kevin Crow scored the game-winner off a pass from Waad Hirmez at 7:55 of the fourth quarter. Hirmez extended his scoring streak to 24 games. Juli Veee added an empty-net goal with 14 seconds to play.
“If we had lost, it might have been embarrassing,” said Socker midfielder Branko Segota.
Cleveland’s leading scorer entering Wednesday’s game was defender John Stollmeyer with 26 points. Regulars Kai Haaskivi, Craig Allen, Ali Kazemaini, Carl Valentine, Dennis Mepham and Paul Kitson were out with injuries.
The Force was playing without players who provided 51% of their goals, 55% of their assists and 53% of their points. The average age of Cleveland’s lineup Wednesday was only 24.
As if that weren’t enough of a handicap, the Force was forced to play a midfielder in goal for most of the night.
With 4:53 gone in the first quarter, Cleveland goalkeeper Victor Nogueira came way out of the goal and tripped over the red line, rupturing the Achilles’ tendon on his left foot.
“I felt like I got clipped from behind,” Nogueira told a Cleveland spokesman as he was carried off the field to the locker room. Nogueira was told there was nobody near him when he fell.
Nogueira will be operated on in Cleveland Friday and is expected to be out eight to 10 months.
Since the Force dresses only one goalkeeper, midfielder Walter Schmetzer--the twin brother of Force defender Andy and younger brother of Socker defender Brian--had to replace Nogueira.
Schmetzer’s longest stint in goal had been four minutes as a sixth attacker. So Wednesday was quite an adventure for Schmetzer, who allowed 5 goals and made 6 saves on 18 shots.
“The toughest part was knowing when to come out and be a player and when to be a goalkeeper,” Schmetzer said. “I got confused sometimes.”
Somehow, the Force held the Sockers to a scoreless tie in the first quarter. It was a moral victory for Cleveland, which had lost five straight.
“It’s like we have the green light to score,” Segota said. “Like there’s no goalie. We went away from our game plan. If you have a real goalie, you concentrate more.”
Each team scored once in the second quarter. San Diego took a 1-0 lead on a right-footer from the top of the arc by midfielder Jacques Ladouceur at 21 seconds of the second quarter.
Thirty seconds later, the Force tied the score on a rebound header by defender Michael King. Cleveland took a 2-1 lead on a goal by forward Gino DiFlorio at 2:22 of the third quarter.
Segota tied the score at 10:58 of the third quarter, but the tie lasted only 14 seconds.
Andy Schmetzer received a gift pass from Segota in front of the Socker net and scored to give the Force a 3-2 lead.
Segota made it 3-3 at 13:36 when he knocked in a loose ball off a pass from Brian Schmetzer that his brother Walter couldn’t hold on to in front of the net. Schmetzer got his second assist.
“It was a funny game, an awkward game,” Newman said. “I didn’t like it.”
