Offense Flows, Defense Ebbs, Sockers Lose
Sockers Coach Ron Newman could only shake his head in frustration. The Sockers finally broke out of their scoring slump Wednesday night, but their defense was non-existent in a 7-5 loss to the Kansas City Comets.
“Everyone’s been complaining that we haven’t been scoring goals,” Newman said. “We’ve been losing, 2-1, winning, 2-1, so we got it together. and the defense goes to pieces.”
The inspired Comets, playing their home opener in front of 11,866 at Kemper Arena, got a 3-goal, 1-assist performance from Kia, and raised their record to 2-2.
Paul Dougherty had two goals for the Sockers, now 2-3.
The Sockers fell behind, 4-1, by halftime, and Newman admitted, “I thought we were going to be blown out.”
So did his players.
“We were flat,” midfielder Brian Quinn said. “The way this league is now, there are no luxuries. If you come out flat, you’re going to lose. But we had a good third quarter.”
The Sockers battled back and tied it with two third-quarter goals and one early in the fourth period.
Dougherty, on a feed from Quinn, scored 1 minute 50 seconds into the third quarter. Then, on the re-start to begin a power play, Quinn sent a pass to Rene Ortiz, who blasted a 35-foot shot that ricocheted off Kansas City goalkeeper Ed Gettermeier’s left foot, hit the crossbar and bounded in the net 3:12 into the period.
Former Comet Cacho, unmarked at the left post, tapped in Gus Mokalis’ pass to tie the score 24 seconds into the fourth quarter.
The Comets went ahead, 5-4, on Kia’s third goal, which was the most spectacular shot of the night. With Sockers midfielder Chris Cheuden serving a 2-minute tripping penalty, goalkeeper Zoltan Toth played a ball out to Mokalis, but Mokalis couldn’t get clear it. Comets forward Dale Mitchell sent a high pass to Kia, who chipped it over the heads of the helpless Mokalis and Toth at 2:13 of the fourth quarter.
‘It was a great effort by Mitchell,” Kia said. “He put them under pressure. I didn’t have a shot, I just jumped and chipped.”
And all Toth could do was watch the ball float into the net.
“It surprised me,” he said. “I had played the ball to the left, and the defender gave it back. I tried to toe-poke it over two players. That was a beautiful chip by Kia.”
It took just 24 seconds for the Sockers to tie the score 5-5 as Quinn scored on a pass from George Fernandez. But the tie also was short-lived.
Twenty seconds later, Kansas City’s Greg Ion, who scored the game-winner in the Comets’ last game, struck again. He beat Socker defenders Kevin Crow and Ralph Black to a ball played by Mitchell and drove it off Black and through Toth’s legs.
“Zolie would have had it,” Black said. “It wasn’t a hard shot. When he (Ion) miss hit it, it went off me.”
It was that kind of night for Toth, who was victimized when a ball deflected off defender George Fernandez for Kia’s second goal in the first half, and again when a 60-foot shot by Comets defender Gino Schiraldi in the second quarter sailed through his hands.
The Comets put the game away with 1:57 to play when Jan Goossens scored on a pass from Kim Roentved.
Toth, who was playing in his 200th career MISL game, has started all five games this season and entered the game with a 2.31 goals-against average, second to Jim Gorsek’s 1.33. He finished the game 3.30.
Toth was bothered by some soreness in his right leg, and Newman said, “I contemplated taking him out, but we scored those two quick goals, and I couldn’t take him out when the game was close. That wouldn’t have been fair to play Victor (Nogueira) then.”
Socker Notes
The Sockers’ next two games are against Tacoma. They’ll play at Tacoma on Saturday night and at 6:05 at the Sports Arena on Sunday. . . . Cacho’s goal was his first since Feb. 5, 1988, when he was with Kansas City.