Gorsek Bad Host to the Sockers : MISL: He shuts down his old teammates in the fourth period as Kansas City hangs on for a 4-3 victory.

Goalkeeper Jim Gorsek may have been known as “The Road Warrior” during his MISL career with the Sockers, but he has found home more to his liking with the Kansas City Comets.

Gorsek came up with four saves in the fourth quarter Friday night, including three in a furious final 90 seconds, as the Comets defeated the Sockers, 4-3, in front of 9,614 at Kemper Arena.

The victory gave Gorsek a 7-0 record at home this season, his first in Kansas City, as opposed to his road record of 0-8.

Of course, facing the Sockers didn’t hurt.

“It’s a little more special beating San Diego because I played there for so long,” said Gorsek, who is 2-3 against the Sockers this season. “But I don’t try to do anything different against them.”

Gorsek was at his best in the final 1:28. He robbed Steve Zungul with a foot save at the near post and followed by blocking a drive by Branko Segota and deflecting Brian Quinn’s rebound.

“He stayed at the near post, and he guessed it right,” said Zungul, who was playing in his first game since Dec. 10. “It hit him right on the toe. I tried to flick it over him, but he was there.”

Gorsek knew just where Zungul was when the shot was taken.

“All I saw was the ball coming across,” Gorsek said, “and as I turned my head I saw some blue shorts. I said, ‘Oh no.’ He hit, I hit it, it went over the top. Just a reaction save.”

The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for the Comets, who are 14-16, including 11-3 at Kemper Arena. The Sockers, who had won two consecutively, fell to 13-16, including a 3-11 road record.

Maybe they need “The Road Warrior” to return.

“Jimmy played a good game,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said. “When we were rotating goalkeepers, he always ended up with a road game. In those days, we were winning at home and on the road, so it didn’t make any difference.”

As for the Sockers’ current road problems, defender Kevin Crow said, “I think it takes hard work on the road. That’s not real conducive to our team. The league is getting more and more physical, and there’s more and more running involved. It’s starting to hurt the teams that want to play more of a finesse style.”

The Sockers never could get a handle on this game. After Rod Castro’s power-play goal from Zungul 8:51 into the third period tied the score at 3-3, Kansas City’s Dave Boncek scored his second goal of the game 13:31 into the period to win it.

But most critical as far as the Sockers were concerned was a shot Crow put in his own goal to give Kansas City a 3-2 lead 5:23 into the third period.

Kansas City defender Kim Roentved, from deep in his own end, hit a long drive into the Sockers penalty area; the ball glazed off the head of forward Jan Goossens and ricocheted off the glass behind the goal. Crow intended to play it back to goalkeeper Victor Nogueria, but Nogueria had come off the line to contest Goossens, so Crow’s pass trickled into the goal. Goossens was credited with the goal, his 23rd of the season and the 150th of his career with the Comets.

“It was a culmination of mistakes,” Crow said of the play. “Victor made a poor decision coming out, and I made a poor decision. I should have just blasted it and kicked it out, but I tried to play it off the boards to Victor’s side and mis-hit it and hit the corner of the post, and it went in.”

Though the Sockers tied it on Castro’s goal, they didn’t play with much intensity after the fluke goal by Kansas City.

Once Kansas City took its 4-3 lead going into the fourth quarter, the Sockers were in trouble. Kansas City is 11-0 in games in which they’ve led after three quarters; the Sockers are 1-11 in games in which they trailed after three.

“I thought early on we looked good,” Newman said, “but we can’t stay with the running game because we haven’t got runners to do that. All the time, Kansas City was running, playing deep balls and running off the deep ball, and that’s the sort of game that’s killing us this year. We couldn’t stay with them.”

Also hurting the Sockers’ cause was a sprained ankle suffered by defender Ralph Black in the first quarter. Black scored on the Sockers’ first shot for a 1-0 lead after 1:08. But 41 seconds later, he collided with Kansas City’s Ted Eck near the Socker goal, had to be helped off the field and did not return.

Rookie Donald Cogsville took a regular shift in place of Black for the rest of the game. Black’s status for Sunday’s game at Cleveland is uncertain.

Socker Notes

The Sockers had 16 players on the bench, one more than league rules allow, but Coach Ron Newman said goalkeeper Zoltan Toth was not dressed to play and was merely helping with the door to the bench.