Segota Gets the Sockers Rolling to Fourth Consecutive Victory

Branko Segota answered the call here Friday night.

The San Diego Sockers were dominated in the first half by the Wichita Wings’ fanatical effort. But they trailed by only one goal.

Coach Ron Newman then asked Segota for help, and he got it. The midfielder led the Sockers to an 8-7 victory in Kansas Coliseum.

The outcome left both teams tied for third in the Major Indoor Soccer League with 7-7 records. It was the fourth victory in a row for the Sockers, and the Wings’ second loss in three games this week.

For the third time in the past four games, Segota got the ball to Steve Zungul for the game-winning goal. This time he did it while being double-teamed.

“I thought Branko had a very quiet game the first half,” Newman said. “I said, ‘You turn ‘em inside out. Come on, we need a big game from you.’ And he went out and responded to that.”

“I wasn’t feeling very well the first half,” Segota said.

But he was feeling fine at the end.

Segota got his first goal when he picked up an errant pass. On his second, he turned on Wings captain Victor Moreland and knifed a shot under goalkeeper Cris Vaccaro.

Moreland also had Segota closed down on his game-winning run, but the Socker midfielder somehow got the ball to Zungul on a run down the far side, and Zungul buried it from 20 feet.

“You can’t take it away from him,” Moreland said. “That’s why he’s one of the top three players in the league. Branko Segota’s paid to score goals, and that’s what he does.”

The Wings got four goals on penalty situations, three on power plays and one on a penalty kick by Mike Stankovic, his third of the season in five tries. That’s good success against a penalty-killing unit that was second in the league coming into the game at 80% effectiveness.

“But every time we got ahead with a power-play, the next shift would allow an equalizer,” Coach Terry Nicholl said. “We never enjoyed a lead against them. They snapped right back. We’ve got to learn to enjoy a lead. We never allowed our power-play goals to kill them off.”

The action was frantic and rugged from the start. Just how rugged was written on the face of Sockers’ goalkeeper Zoltan Toth after the game. Toth had an ice pack on the back of his head trying to dull the ache of a kick from Wings defender Terry Rowe.

He stared out of two eyes that were quickly blackening from a shot in the face by Wichita forward Andy Chapman.

“The last time they almost kicked out my eye,” said Toth, who faced 45 shots, made 19 saves and came up with his fifth victory. “I am very happy to survive.”

San Diego scored four goals in the third period to take a 6-4 lead after the Wings got their third power-play goal.

Two of those goals were by Paul Dougherty, who almost failed to make the trip because of a stomach virus. He not only traveled but he set a team record by playing in his 89th consecutive game, breaking the mark of 88 by Wichita’s Jean Willrich.

He also fueled the Sockers’ explosion.

Dougherty pounded home the rebound of a Zoran Karic shot, then took a feed from Karic to give the Sockers a 6-4 lead with 25 seconds left in the third period.

Dougherty’s goals came after Segota turned on Moreland and drilled a shot through Vaccaro’s legs.

Wichita got even at 1-1 on a power play goal by Mike Fox while Zungul was in the penalty box for obstruction.

But it took the Sockers only 40 seconds to regain the lead on a 40-foot shot by Cacho that skidded beneath Vaccaro.

Stankovic squared things again at 2-2 when Chico Borja found him with a pass at the far post. That one came while Sockers midfielder Brian Quinn was sitting out a kicking penalty.