MISL FINALS : Sockers’ Final Answer Beats Force, 6-5

The Sockers finally built a lead the rules said they weren’t allowed to give away Wednesday night and put an end to a game that was looking for a spark all night but never found it.

Game 1 of the Major Indoor Soccer League championship series had as much intensity and drama as an old western in which everybody keeps getting shot in the leg, but nobody dies. What’s worse, it took overtime to decide.

Finally, Fernando Clavijo put the thing out of its misery with a goal seven minutes after regulation play had ended, giving the Sockers a 6-5 victory over the Cleveland Force in the San Diego Sports Arena.

Before Clavijo’s goal, the Sockers took one-goal leads four times but couldn’t muster enough energy to put the Force away for good.

Cleveland tied the score four times, the last on Craig Allen’s goal with 1:59 remaining to send it into overtime.

The way things were going, it’s a good thing the MISL plays sudden-death.

“No kidding,” Sockers Coach Ron Newman said. “If we had kept playing, they probably would have tied it again.”

As it is, though, the Sockers have taken a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series with one more game scheduled for San Diego Friday night before the teams go to Cleveland for three.

Maybe by then, they will be warmed up. Wednesday’s game looked more like a preseason scrimmage than a championship final.

“Let’s put it this way,” Newman said. “We’ve played a lot better games than this in the past and lost. We seemed in slow motion at times. But, the thing is, they looked slow, too.”

Both teams seemed disinterested, and the fans who stayed away obviously felt that way, too. After selling out for Game 7 of the Western Division finals Saturday night, the Sockers could attract only 7,322 for their championship opener.

They saw a game that was crying for overtime only because neither team was playing well enough to put the other away.

“We just couldn’t get our game to that extra level,” said Kevin Crow, the Socker defender. “When you get a lead, you have to put the other team away. We didn’t do that, and we were lucky to win.”

That’s because when Clavijo scored his second goal of the game in overtime, the Force wasn’t afforded a second chance.

Clavijo, who had given the Sockers one of their many leads late in the fourth quarter, scored his game-winner after receiving a pass from Jacques Ladouceur down the left sideline.

Clavijo collected the ball with his right foot and looked to center it, but the middle was clogged.

“I really didn’t have anything else I could do,” Clavijo said. “I had to shoot the ball.”

Out of necessity came success.

Earlier, in the first quarter, neither team had much success as the game began to take on its ho-hum character.

Cleveland scored on its first shot, a right-footer by Allen, who was set up in front by Carl Valentine at the 4:10 mark.

The Sockers, still looking for a jump-start, evened things six minutes later when Crow was sent in on a breakaway by Brian Quinn.

The Sockers were short-handed when Quinn bounced a pass to Crow behind the Cleveland defense. Crow struggled to collect the ball but once he did, he was able to beat P.J. Johns with a low, hard shot.

Paul Dougherty scored on a rebound 17 seconds into the second period to put the Sockers on top for the first time, 2-1. Waad Hirmez took the original shot, and when Johns couldn’t handle it, Dougherty was there to kick it past him.

Cleveland began its string of comebacks on a goal by Andy Schmetzer 40 seconds later. Kai Haaskivi set this one up with a perfect feed to Schmetzer in the midst of a crowd of Socker defenders in front.

For the next 2 1/2 quarters, it was as if both teams were holding serve in a tennis match.

Sockers: A goal by Hugo Perez on a beautiful give-and-go with Juli Veee.

Perez passed into Veee, then ran to the right of him toward the Cleveland goal. Veee touched the ball to Perez, who scored on a high shot over Johns.

Force: Haaskivi floats a perfect pass to the right of the goal that is headed in by Gino DiFlorio six minutes into the third quarter.

Sockers: Perez regains the lead for San Diego on an individual effort that carries him past DiFlorio to the left of the goal for a curling shot that eludes Johns into the top right corner. It’s 4-3 Sockers with 12 minutes left.

Force: Paul Kitson, who hasn’t scored a point all season, passes in front to Valentine, who deflects a right-foot shot past Jim Gorsek to tie the score, 4-4, with 7:10 left.

Sockers: Clavijo takes a shot from the right point that deflects off Comet defender John Stollmeyer and past Johns with 2:28 left.

The way this game had been played, it would have been appropriate for the game to be decided on a lucky goal like this.

But it wasn’t.

Force: With 1:59 left, Allen collects a pass from Stollmeyer and rips one past Gorsek to to tie it once again and send the game to overtime.

Socker Notes

The series continues Friday night in the Sports Arena with Game 2 at 7:05. All of the Sockers’ home games in the series will start at 7:05, a half-hour earlier than during the regular season. This seemed to be lost on many of the fans at Game 1, who arrived late. . . . Before Wednesday’s game, only two Cleveland players had ever played in an indoor soccer championship series. Midfielder Paul Kitson played with the Baltimore Blast in 1983 and 1985 and with the New York Arrows in 1982. Kai Haaskivi played in an indoor final in 1980 with the Houston Summit. Twelve Sockers had played in final series. . . . Cleveland had killed 80% (8 of 10) of its short-handed situations in the playoffs before Paul Dougherty scored on the Sockers’ first power-play opportunity early in the second quarter. . . . A statistic to think about for Games 3, 4 and 5 in Cleveland: The Force hasn’t allowed a power-play goal at home since Dec. 27, covering a span of 24 games. . . . Of 26 media representatives polled by the league, 18 picked the Sockers to win the series in six games. Only five media members picked Cleveland. Six of the league’s coaches also were polled, and four picked the Sockers.