Sockers Fight Back, Rout Sidekicks : MISL: Eight second-half scores lead to 9-5 victory in Dallas; Waad Hirmez’s third goal with four seconds left ignites bench-clearing brawl.

The Sockers were already in a surly mood thanks to consecutive losses by a combined 14-2 margin entering Wednesday night’s survival game against the Western Division-leading Dallas Sidekicks. All they needed was a little spark to light their short fuse.

It came when referee Kelly Mock didn’t call what the Sockers said was an obvious tripping foul against Tatu on his way to a goal in the third quarter. It gave Dallas a 2-1 lead but also made the Sockers fighting mad.

Playing without Steve Zungul, Branko Segota and Brian Quinn, the Sockers scored eight second-half goals for a 9-5 victory before 5,787 at Reunion Arena in a game that ended in a bench-clearing brawl.

After Waad Hirmez scored his third goal of the night with four seconds remaining, he went to his knees to celebrate. But before the ritual started, Dallas defender Richard Chinapoo approached, and the two exchanged shoves and shouts. The encounter quickly escalated as both benches emptied. Dallas defender Doc Lawson took on several Sockers and eventually threw a windmill right kick at Ralph Black.

Lawson, Chinapoo and Terry Woodberry received penalties for Dallas, Black and Cacho for the Sockers.

While Chinapoo had no comment, Hirmez blamed it on frustration.

“I went to my knees to celebrate and (Chinapoo) came at me,” said Hirmez, who recorded his first hat trick in two years. “He told me ‘Don’t do that . . . in here’ and then grabbed my shirt. I understand he was frustrated, and it happened in the heat of the moment, but he’s got to take both the losing and the winning in this league.”

Lawson, a martial arts expert, said he was taking up for his teammate.

“Their whole bench went after Richard, and I’m not going to sit there and take that,” said Lawson, who said he and his teammates became upset when the Sockers called a timeout to “rub in” an 8-3 lead.

“They’re known for that kind of crap,” he said, “but we don’t respect a team that tries to make you look foolish at home. As for Ralph, he’s always been an instigator. He attempted to kick me, but of course he had three guys standing in front of him. I don’t like to fight, but if he was man enough, I would meet him where there were no referees or fines and the only thing you would hear about it would be the next day when he showed up at the hospital.”

Black, who said Lawson’s kick only glanced off his head, downplayed the incident.

“Me and Doc have been going at it for years,” Black said. “He’s the kind of guy who you fight on the field in the heat of battle and then go buy him a beer when it’s over. But it was a pretty good kick. I guess he knows a little about karate.”

Almost lost was a game that the Sockers said could turn around a season going bad.

“Tonight we were missing the superstars, but we had a hard-working lineup, and it just clicked,” Hirmez said. “This could turn our thing around, but we’ll have to wait and see. I know that after that non-call on Tatu, we just got a little extra energy and then we did to their sixth attacker what teams have been doing to us lately.”

The Sockers, who contended that Tatu tripped Ben Collins in order to get the ball en route to his first goal, made sure the non-call was insignificant by getting consecutive goals from Jacques Ladouceur and Zoran Karic and two from Hirmez for a 5-2 lead with 12:17 remaining.

“It looked like the ref put the whistle in his mouth but didn’t blow it,” said Ron Newman, the Sockers’ coach. “It was a terrible non-call. If Tatu would’ve been on the other end of that, whistles would’ve been blowing from here to Fort Worth. We’ve wanted an effort like this for ages, and tonight we finally got it.”

After Dallas cut the lead to 5-3, the Sockers responded with goals against Dallas’ sixth attacker by Jim Gabarra, George Fernandez and Karic to make it 8-3 with 4:18 left.

The Sockers, who broke a two-game losing streak and ended Dallas’ four-game winning streak, improved to 15-20 and pulled within six games of Dallas (21-14), which lost at home for only the fourth time in 18 games.

Tatu, who also had a hat trick, scored two late goals for Dallas to increase his league-leading total to 46.