Karic Gives Sockers 3-0 Series Lead With Overtime Score, 3-2
An explanation certainly was in order Sunday night after Zoran Karic scored 1:28 into overtime to give the Sockers a 3-2 victory over the Cleveland Force in Game 3 of the Major Indoor Soccer League championship series.
But Karic, who is from Yugoslavia, doesn’t understand English too well, and reporters just had to find out what was what.
Finally, defender Gus Mokalis was rounded up, and through him, Karic described the winning play, which began when Brian Quinn took control of a loose ball and started a 3-on-2 break with Fernando Clavijo to his left and Karic to his right.
Quinn reached midfield and passed left to Clavijo. With Cleveland defender Andy Schmetzer and goalkeeper P.J. Johns drawn to him, Clavijo passed across to Karic alone on the right side. “And, it was easy to put it in from there,” Karic said through Mokalis.
In the Cleveland locker room in the Richfield Coliseum, it was all too clear what Karic’s goal meant.
The Sockers now lead the best-of-seven series 3-0, and are a victory away a sixth indoor championship.
“Nobody has to tell us what our position is now,” Force Coach Timo Liekoski said. “It’s going to take an unbelievable effort for us to come back.”
Added defender John Stollmeyer, “It’s a bit tough to realize that we are in this position, because it seems we’ve played well. Two overtime games, and now they’re up 3-0. It should be closer.”
Sunday’s game, in front of 10,705, was the most close-to-the-vest confrontation of the series. Cleveland, conceding the Sockers’ speed advantage, decided to play physically, rather than use the wide-open style it employed in the first two games.
The Sockers struggled against this strategy and didn’t get their first shot on goal until only three minutes remained in the first quarter.
Juli Veee took the shot, after getting a pass from Quinn, and scored to give the Sockers a 1-0 lead.
“Have we been getting unlucky?” Stollmeyer asked afterward. “Well, they score on their first shot and we get these great chances and can’t get anything to go in.”
Kai Haaskivi did score off a restart to tie the score, 1-1, but Cleveland was unable to take the lead because it did not finish off a few plays that appeared on the verge of being productive.
On one play, Gino DiFlorio tried a header from one foot out and knocked it two feet over the crossbar. Later, he whiffed on a ball that was rolling across the Sockers’ goal line.
Other Cleveland opportunities were turned away by Jim Gorsek, who played his best playoff game in the Sockers’ goal before leaving early in the fourth quarter, when Force forward Craig Allen bumped into him going for a loose ball. Gorsek was feeling fine after the game.
“I’m not sure what he hit me with, but when I went down, my head was spinning, “ Gorsek said. “Then, I started to feel fine. But when I got up, everything was spinning again.”
Gorsek had turned some heads with big saves against Allen, twice, and Schmetzer.
Early in the third quarter, the Sockers took a 2-1 lead on a power-play goal by Waad Hirmez. Karic set up the goal with a centering pass, and the goal ended Cleveland’s streak of not having allowed a power-play goal at home in 26 games.
The Force appeared to be down for the count in regulation play. But Allen beat Zoltan Toth after a centering pass from Haaskivi to tie the score, 2-2, with 1:55 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Sockers needed only a couple of extra minutes, however, to move with one game of another championship.
“The biggest problem we have right now,” Haaskivi concluded, “is that we’re just not finishing our chances.”
And, now chances are, the Force is finished.
Socker Notes
For the second day in a row, a Socker player finished second in the balloting for one of the league’s post-season awards. The newcomer of the year award, presented to the league’s best first-year player, was won by Wichita goalkeeper Nenad Zigante, who beat Socker forward Keder by two points. Saturday, Wichita forward Erik Rasmussen beat the Sockers’ Branko Segota for the league’s most valuable player award by one point.
