Sockers Continue Their Turnaround by Defeating the Blast, 7-3

Paul Dougherty said something Sunday night that would have landed him in a straitjacket three weeks ago.

It was minutes after the Baltimore Blast lost to the Sockers, 7-3, before 8,014 at the San Diego Sports Arena. Dougherty plays midfielder for the Blast (24-18), which has never won a championship. Last season, he played midfielder for the Sockers, who have won seven.

The question: Can the Sockers (19-21) come back and win another?

Dougherty’s answer: “Yeah, they can win it, but I don’t think it’s as clear-cut as it has been in previous years.”

A week ago, the only thing clear-cut was the Sockers’ dire need for a winning streak. Since then, Paul Wright returned to play his first game since arriving from Cleveland in the trade that sent forward Zoran Karic to the Crunch. And the Sockers beat St. Louis, Kansas City and Baltimore.

Couple those with a victory over the Crunch a few days before Wright’s arrival, and the Sockers have four victories in a row for the first time this season. Anybody who has been holding their breath may now check into the hospital.

The victories are helping melt the sour memory of the Blast’s last visit to San Diego, Feb. 23, when Baltimore won, 8-1, to hand the Sockers their worst MISL regular-season loss.

The Sockers are now tied with St. Louis for second in the Western Division, five games behind Dallas. Suddenly, there is a team where before there were only a lot of talented players doing more griping than scoring.

“They think they can’t be beat now,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said. “Even if we lose one, I think it will be hard to break the spirit.”

It took all of 35 seconds for the Sockers to get the ball rolling past goalie Scott Manning Sunday. That was when Wright scored his first goal since returning, taking a pass from midfielder Waad Hirmez and drilling it into the left corner. Less than five minutes later, forward Rod Castro made it 2-0 off a crossing pass from midfielder Jacques Ladouceur.

In the second quarter, after Blast midfielder Freddie Thompson bounced a pass to himself off the board and slipped it to the left of goalie Zoltan Toth, Socker forward Jim Gabarra snuck a shot from the right corner past a diving Manning, who managed to get only a small piece of the ball.

Before halftime, Blast midfielder Carl Valentine scored an artful goal from the top of the penalty area to make it 4-2. A pinball-type goal that finally deflected off Blast forward Domenic Mobilio made it 4-3 early in the third quarter. From then on, the Blast watched as the Sockers had fun.

Early in the fourth quarter, Baltimore defender Mike Stankovic gave a nice tap to a shot from Hirmez to redirect it into the goal. The Sockers then got fourth-quarter goals from defender Cacho and Ladouceur, both scores made easy by elegant passes from Branko Segota. On Cacho’s, Segota pulled Thompson and Mobilio out of position by dribbling away from the goal and then turning and knocking a pass to Cacho, who took it down the left sideline and scorched it by Manning with his left foot.

Less than two minutes later, Segota sent a pass by Stankovic, who was serving as the sixth attacker, and headed it into the middle for Ladouceur, who backpeddled a few steps and popped it into the net.

“They marked me very tight,” Segota said. “I didn’t have many chances to score, so I made other things happen.”

Which is indicative of the way in which the Sockers have been playing since the trade. The selfishness is gone. And, even in the absence of midfielder Brian Quinn, who missed his seventh consecutive game with tendinitis of the groin, the Sockers are playing Quinn-style soccer. That means hustling to play defense, looking for the open player and using their heads.

“I think we’re back to normal right now,” Cacho said. “The big guys are back.”

Big guys such as Segota, who readily admits he has trouble motivating himself before the playoffs are in clear view. Segota has 10 points in the past three games.

And Toth’s play can’t be overlooked. In a season filled with mishaps, he has been steady, often keeping the Sockers from extinction with spectacular saves. Sunday, he had 11 to square his record at 10-10.

Now, the Sockers will look to prove themselves on the road, where they are 5-14. Yet there seems to be a feeling that the negative is going to continue to turn positive.

“I think we’re pretty confident,” defender George Fernandez said. “If we keep playing this way, and I know we will, we’ll win another championship.”