Sockers End Lost Weekend by Taking a 7-3 Blasting in Baltimore

Nothing could make the Sockers happier this morning than to wake up in their own beds.

Despite playing “reasonably well,” in the words of Coach Ron Newman, the Sockers came up empty on the weekend trip to Kansas City and Baltimore.

The Sockers’ early mistakes Saturday night and a fantastic effort by Baltimore goalie Scott Manning were enough to give the Blast a 7-3 victory at the Baltimore Arena.

“Anytime we play in Baltimore, we have to be at our best,” Newman said. “We need the breaks to win.”

Instead, the Sockers gave away the few opportunities they received and at other times made mental errors that resulted in a loss that has put them on shaky ground in the Major Indoor Soccer League standings, 4 1/2 games behind first-place Baltimore and just a half game ahead of Dallas. The Sidekicks won their second game in a row Saturday--a 4-2 victory in Los Angeles--and a win this afternoon in Kansas City would pull them even with the Sockers at 18-16, in second place. “We can’t be concerned with where we are in the standings,” Newman said. “It’s not important to finish in first place. All we’re concerned with now is getting home, where we’ve got five games coming up that we need to win. We were at least hoping for a split on the road.”

Instead, after Friday’s 3-2 overtime loss in Kansas City, the Blast ambushed Sockers early Saturday, taking a 3-1 lead at halftime on a pair of goals by Carl Valentine and one by Billy Ronson. Low-scoring defenseman Chris Chueden provided the first two Sockers’ goals, and the Blast’s Freddie Thompson scored at 5:26 into the third quarter.

Ralf Wilhelms’ fourth goal of the season at 7:47 of the third quarter brought the Sockers within one, at 4-3, but that’s when San Diego broke down.

Branko Segota came off the carpet on a line change and the Sockers forgot to substitute, giving the Blast a 30-second power play that Tim Wittman took advantage of with his 24th goal of the season.

“The Blast is too quick to make those mistakes against,” Sockers forward Steve Zungul said. “Just coming in here things are already going against you. When you make those mental mistakes, they know how to capitalize.”

Three minutes later, the Sockers had a golden opportunity to get back into the game with a two-man advantage for 1:04, after penalties were called on Bruce Savage (tripping) and Manning (handball).

“We had a chance to bring ourselves back,” Zungul said.

Instead, the Blast cleared the ball well and Manning made three key saves, robbing Zungul and Alan Willey twice.

“Stopping them there was the difference in the game,” Manning said.

David Byrne and Kai Haaskivi scored fourth-quarter goals for Baltimore to secure the victory.

Newman said he thought the margin of victory flattered the Blast, because his team played well enough to win.

“We played better tonight than we did against Kansas City,” said Newman, whose club squandered countless early opportunities against the Comets. “We just gave the Blast chances they didn’t deserve, and they had a few fluke goals. The idea is to get a few of those lucky ones for ourselves and we couldn’t.”

Socker Notes

Victor Nogueira’s seven goals allowed Saturday was the most since Feb. 3, when he allowed eight in a loss at Kansas City. Since then, he had allowed just 16 goals in seven games, and was named MISL player of the month for February. . . . Saturday’s game was the third time this season the Sockers have had the Blast on the back end of back-to-back games. The Sockers, who will set the league standard with 14 back-to-back contests this season, are 0-4 against the Blast. “I guess they don’t want us to repeat,” Coach Ron Newman said. . . . For Blast Coach Kenny Cooper, Saturday’s win was his 300th in the MISL, 112 more than second-place Don Popovich. . . . The Sockers will take the week off and will see the Blast again a week from today at the San Diego Sports Arena at 7:35 p.m.