Beating Sockers Lets Blast ‘Split’

SAN DIEGO —  The Baltimore Blast, which began Friday with an 11-4 record, finished Friday with an 11-4 record thanks to a 4-2 victory over the Sockers at the Sports Arena Friday night.

Kai Haaskivi, who when left alone can pick apart a defense with the precision of a red-hot quarterback, found a couple of openings to his liking and had a goal and an assist to save the Blast from a rare Major Indoor Soccer League double--losing a victory and a game on the same day.

The Sockers lost their second consecutive game, this one in front of 7,671 fans, because they were shackled by a team that earlier Friday was fit to be tied.

The MISL took away--for the moment at least--the Blast’s 8-6 victory over Kansas City Dec. 27 when it upheld the Comets’ protest of a third-quarter goal the Blast scored to take a 5-3 lead.

Two Kansas City players were in the penalty box when the goal was scored, which wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that their penalties had been completed.

MISL Commissioner Bill Kentling said the game will restart April 2 with 5:33 remaining in the third quarter and Baltimore leading, 4-3.

Said Baltimore Coach Kenny Cooper: “We still feel we are 12-4 now. Their two players were talking when their penalty ended. They should have known to come out of the box.”

There will be no such ruling to save the Sockers from Friday’s loss.

Baltimore, still in first place, suppressed the Sockers’ offense all evening and moved four games ahead of them in the MISL standings.

The Sockers (8-9) have made great strides since starting the season 3-7, but it looks as if they still have a ways to go.

“The difference between our team and their team right now is that they have five players back there defending like crazy,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said. “We’d have five back there sometimes, but other times we’d have only 2 or 3.”

That must explain the openings the Sockers allowed Haaskivi, who was given extra time to plan on both the goal and the assist.

“He’s not a guy you want to let go,” Newman said. “We know that he can be very methodical with his finishing if he gets clear.”

Haaskivi had time to think back to some of the pain the Sockers inflicted on his Cleveland Force in a four-game sweep of the MISL Championship Series this past June.

With his new team, Haaskivi got a little payback Friday.

With the Blast leading, 1-0, late in the second quarter, Haaskivi was allowed to survey the field from the right of the Sockers’ goal.

Like a wide receiver running a fly pattern, Carl Valentine beat the Sockers’ Alan Willey by a step. Haaskivi’s pass was perfect, and Valentine his second goal too give Baltimore a 2-0 halftime lead.

Valentine, who also played for Cleveland last year, had scored early in the second quarter on a pass from Desmond Armstrong, another ex-Force player now in Baltimore.

“All of us remember,” Haaskivi said. “We think we have a team here that can get back to the finals, and maybe this time, can take that extra step.”

The Sockers, after crawling through the first half, came to life momentarily 15 seconds into the third quarter when Kevin Crow scored on a breakaway.

The momentum was slowed a few minutes later by Haaskivi.

Left alone at the left side this time, Haaskivi beat Socker goalkeeper Victor Nogueira with a low shot that banked in off the far post.

With 26 seconds left in the third quarter, Freddie Thompson scored to give the Blast a 4-1 lead and put the game away.

Socker Notes

Said MISL Commissioner Bill Kentling on why he decided to uphold the Comets’ protest in the Dec. 27 game against Baltimore: “League rules were misapplied and a technical error was made in not properly releasing the two Kansas City players from the penalty box. The unfair advantage dramatically altered the game resulting in a completely different contest from that point on.” . . . Paul Dougherty, who had played in a Socker-record 91 consecutive games, did not play Friday because of a bruised foot. . . . The Sockers sixth championship rings will be presented in a ceremony before Sunday’s 6:05 game against the Los Angeles Lazers. It’s appropriate the Sockers are staging their ring ceremony before a game with Los Angeles since three players (Waad Hirmez, Jim Gorsek and Fernando Clavijo) who helped the Sockers win the 1987-88 championship now play for the Lazers.