Sockers Take Step 1, Clinch Division Title

It was a typical division-clinching celebration for the Sockers Saturday night.

There was no champagne and there was only minimal jubilation in the locker room after the Sockers’ 8-3 victory over the Baltimore Blast that clinched the MISL Western Division title.

There was the customary postgame snack of grapes, strawberries and oranges, and there were a lot of smiles. But the Sockers are still 11 playoff victories away from breaking out the bubbly stuff.

“We’re happy with what we’ve achieved, but we can’t celebrate yet,” said Kevin Crow, a Socker defender. “We have to take it pretty levelheaded.”

Through the years, the Sockers have always considered the division title to be theirs and just one step on the way to their primary objective, the league championship.

“That’s the basic attitude of this team,” said Socker midfielder Branko Segota.

Last season, the Sockers rented the division title to the Tacoma Stars after they had won it and the league championship (three in the MISL, two in the North American Soccer League) for five consecutive years. In the playoffs, the Stars beat the Sockers in seven games in the Western Division championship series.

So now it’s wait until the playoffs. Actually, it has been that way for a while with the Sockers. It has been a foregone conclusion this season that the Sockers would clinch their division before the first day of spring.

At 35-10, the Sockers lead Kansas City, Tacoma and Los Angeles by 12 1/2 games.

“It’s nice to be there,” said Socker Coach Ron Newman, “but I worry that it came so early. We need something to play for.”

With 11 regular-season games remaining, the Sockers’ magic number to clinch the best record in the league and thereby gain the home-field advantage through the playoffs is three over Minnesota, which leads the Eastern Division.

On Saturday night, the Sockers continued to beat up on the East. They are now 16-2 against those teams.

Playing in front of 11,042 fans at the San Diego Sports Arena--the second-largest home crowd of the season--the Sockers scored five goals in the second quarter on the way to an easy victory over Baltimore, which is 20-27 and barely resembles its powerful predecessors.

Segota, who returned to the lineup after he missed Thursday’s game with a sprained left ankle, had two goals and two assists. He has 48 goals and is tied with Minnesota forward Hector Marinaro for the league lead.

Paul Dougherty scored twice to raise his season total to 32. Raffaele Ruotolo, Gus Mokalis, Jacques Ladouceur and Brian Schmetzer also scored for the Sockers. Keith Furphy, Ted Hantak and Freddie Thompson scored for the Blast.

Socker goalkeeper Zoltan Toth made 14 saves on 25 shots to win his seventh game in a row since he won the All-Star game.

Toth is 17-5 and has a league-leading 2.79 goals-against average, well below the MISL’s all-time best season GAA of 3.38, set by Minnesota’s Tino Lettieri last year.

Toth and the Sockers were at their best in the second quarter.

The Sockers scored on all five of their shots and equaled their season high for goals in a quarter. Toth made three key saves when the Blast, trailing 4-1, peppered him with shots.

“It’s nice to have the division title,” Toth said.