Depleted Sockers Lose Toth to Yellow Cards, Game to Stars, 6-4
The Tacoma Stars suckered goalie Zoltan Toth out of the game early and beat the crippled Sockers for the first time in six meetings, 6-4, Wednesday night at the Tacoma Dome.
San Diego (37-12), playing without Branko Segota (arch strain), Fernando Clavijo (foot bruise) and Juli Veee (pulled hamstring), as well as long-term disabled players Brian Quinn, Hugo Perez, George Katakalidis and Keder, had just 13 bodies to dress and lost one of those.
The “replacement players” led, 2-1, after one period, but Toth then was red-carded, and the Stars ran off five consecutive goals to deny San Diego its MISL-record 38th victory and 18th on the road.
Tacoma struck just 1:43 into the game after Paul Dougherty drew a dangerous-play penalty for grazing Star goalie Mike Dowler. Ricky Davis punched in his 18th goal, a 40-footer from the right side.
The Sockers scored at 9:47 when Brian Schmetzer beat Tacoma back on a counterattack to tap in rookie Hormoz Tabrizi’s miss off the left boards.
Twenty-eight seconds from the end of the quarter, Zoran Karic scored his 16th goal, pulling the ball toward midfield and then spinning back toward the goal and around defender Joe Waters to drill a right-footer from the right point for a 2-1 San Diego lead.
In the period’s closing seconds, Preki’s header bounced hard off the ground in front of the goal line, sprang up and hit the bottom of the crossbar. Preki, the MISL’s runaway scoring leader for most of the year who had Wichita’s Erik Rasmussen draw even with him Tuesday, argued as action continued the other way that he had been robbed of a goal. Toth, alone with Preki in the penalty area, pushed him and the two high-chested each other several times before Kevin Crow split them apart. Preki and Toth were assessed coincidental unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties to open the second period.
Just 1:23 into the quarter, Toth picked up the ball after a foul on the Sockers, Star forward Gary Heale pushed him and Toth, who had won eight consecutive starts, pushed back. Both were given yellow cards, and Toth’s second of the night sent him to the showers. He was replaced by Jim Gorsek, who wound up with seven saves.
Sockers Coach Ron Newman says Toth was set up.
“Young Preki just came up to butt him. I don’t know if he connected or not,” Newman said of the initial incident. “Then he was a sitting duck. Every team knows you’ve only got to nudge him. Preki wouldn’t do it because he’s already gotten a yellow card. They’re willing to get a yellow card for Gary Heale, so Zolie’s got a red card. It was a put-up job.”
Tacoma, which needed just 13 seconds of its first power play to find the net, went three minutes (the difference between Toth’s five-minute penalty and Heale’s two-minute infraction) without scoring, but five seconds later, Peter Ward got free in the middle of the box to tie it at 2-2. Preki regained the league scoring lead with the assist for his 97th point.
The Stars took a 3-2 halftime lead when Preki, trailing a fast break, knifed in from the right side to head Davis’ miss into the left side of the net.
Tacoma moved in front, 5-2, with a pair of nearly identical goals at 8:27 and 9:35 of the third quarter. Both came off restarts from the right corner, with Steve Zungul passing inside for Heale to redirect for goals No. 26 and 37. The second was scored just one second into a San Diego penalty for six fouls.
Ward padded the margin with his second goal of the night and 40th of the season. With Gorsek on the turf, Davis missed a wide-open shot, but Ward skipped around the fallen goalkeeper to head in the rebound at 10:58.
Gus Mokalis scored for San Diego 2:57 into the fourth quarter. His shot was wide of the far post but spun off the boards, hit the diving Dowler in the back and kicked in.
The Sockers cut the gap to 6-4, playing the final 4:53 with a sixth attacker and getting Dougherty’s 33rd goal with 30 seconds remaining.
Newman was pleased with his replacement players except for the two quick goals by Heale off the free kicks.