Zungul, Sockers Beat Lazers in Overtime

The Major Indoor Soccer League celebrated its 10th anniversary Thursday night, but it was not a night for gifts or giveaways.

Neither the Lazers nor the San Diego Sockers were in a charitable mood, and the result was a tightly played game before Steve Zungul scored 6:40 into overtime to give the Sockers a 4-3 victory in front of 5,125 fans at the Forum.

The Lazers had shut out the Sockers for three quarters before San Diego scored three times in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime.

In the extra period, Branko Segota passed to Zungul on a restart, and Zungul beat Lazer goalkeeper Jim Gorsek to give the Sockers (5-7) their second straight victory.

“He gave me a perfect pass,” Zungul said. “I think my shot surprised him (Gorsek).”

The Socker victory was somewhat surprising, too, since the Lazers (5-8) had beaten San Diego twice this season and in 10 of the last 15 meetings.

But this was an anniversary night for Zungul, too, and he wasn’t about to miss his celebration.

Ten years ago, on Dec. 22, the MISL kicked off its first season, and Zungul scored the first 4 goals of his career to help the New York Arrows beat the Cincinnati Kids, 7-2.

That year, Zungul averaged nearly a hat trick per game, scoring 90 goals in 32 games.

For a while Thursday night, it seemed that the Sockers and Lazers would be lucky to score 3 goals between them. The game was scoreless at halftime.

In the third quarter, however, Hector Marinaro and Jim Gabarra scored less than a minute apart to give the Lazers a 2-0 lead.

The Sockers woke up in the fourth quarter, when Kevin Crow scored at the 32-second mark.

The Lazers went ahead, 3-1, with 9 minutes left on Marinaro’s second goal of the night before Segota brought the Sockers within 3-2 with just over 4 minutes left.

Then, with 3:13 remaining, the Sockers had a power play and pulled goalkeeper Zoltan Toth for a sixth attacker. A goal by Zoran Karic tied the game with 2:34 remaining to send it into overtime.