Cleveland Puts Nogueira on His Back, Beats Sockers in Overtime

Socker goalie Victor Nogueira was flat on his back last night as his perfect 4-0 record against the Cleveland Crunch ended.

Nogueira slipped and fell as Crunch forward Hector Marinaro scored the game-winning goal in a come-from-behind, 3-2 overtime victory before 5,656 people at the Coliseum.

The Sockers (21-25) will try to rebound today when they play at Baltimore at 3 p.m. in a game to be shown on Prime Ticket.

Marinaro, who finished with two goals, scored the game-winner 4:14 into overtime, from the boards to the left of the Sockers’ goal, after Nogueira slipped while trying to stop Crunch defender Benny Dargle from scoring from the corner of the goal area.

“I saw he (Nogueira) was out of position when he went out after Benny, and Benny passed the ball out to me,” Marinaro said. “I just wanted to get to the ball and get off a shot before Nogueira had a chance to get back on his feet. I was facing away from the goal when I got to the ball, and I turned and fired off a shot. It wasn’t pretty, but I’ll take it.”

Marinaro’s first goal came with 6:10 remaining in regulation and the Sockers leading, 2-1.

Marinaro was driving toward the Sockers’ goal when he was upended by a defender, and the Crunch received a free kick near the back of the penalty area to the right of the Socker net.

Former Socker star Zoran Karic, traded to the Crunch on March 6 for Paul Wright, then tapped the ball off to Marinaro, who slammed home the game-tying shot past Nogueira from 30 feet away.

Crunch midfielder David Hoggan opened the scoring for the Crunch in the first quarter. Hoggan took a pass from Karic near the boards on the right side, moved to the left rear of the penalty area and then knocked it past Nogueira for a 1-0 lead at the 8:24 mark.

The Sockers took charge in the second quarter, with Wright scoring his 22nd goal of the season, his first against his former teammates, as he drove up the middle of the box and took a pass from teammate Damir Haramina from the left of the Crunch goal. Haramina had drawn Crunch goalie Otto Orf, a former Socker, away from the goal, and Wright had an open target.

The Sockers went on top, 2-1, at the 9:37 mark of the second quarter when Orf was whistled for a hand ball outside the box just to the left of the Crunch goal, setting up a penalty shootout. Socker midfielder Branko Segota went one-on-one against Orf, putting his first shot off the wall to the left of the Crunch goal but then following up on the rebound and driving it home from 15-feet out to the left and between Orf’s legs as the five seconds expired.

Orf was almost the goat with 49 seconds remaining in regulation and the scored tied when he was called for his second hand ball violation while trying to break up a Sockers threat just to the left of the Crunch goal. But this time, unlike the first, no penalty shootout was awarded by the officials because they felt there was no chance of the ball going in the goal, and Hoggan went to the penalty box to serve the two minutes.

“Otto played extremely well for us tonight,” said Kai Haaskivi, the Crunch player-coach. “In a tight game like this, you look for the goalkeeper to give you inspiration and tonight, Otto was breeding confidence.

“It took us awhile to get things going, but I’m very proud of the way we came through.”