With Segota Out Sockers Get Up to Win on Road

When Branko Segota decides to hang up his soccer boots, he might consider a career as a Major League Baseball manager.

Segota stole a page out of the playbook of Padre Manager Jack McKeon Sunday, and the Sockers moved into a tie for second place in the MISL Western Division as the result of a 7-4 victory over the Baltimore Blast Sunday.

Segota, the Sockers’ leading scorer, wasn’t around to see the Sockers end their five-game road losing streak before 9,460 at the Baltimore Arena. Segota was ejected midway through the second period by senior referee Gino Dippolito after drawing a two-minute misconduct penalty which he disputed.

When Dippolito gave Segota the heave-ho, the Sockers woke up, scoring four of the next six goals to turn a 3-2 nail-biter into something a little more lopsided, something that looked more like the Sockers of old than the team struggling to remain in the playoff picture.

It looked like the kind of tirade a baseball manager plans to light a fire under a slumbering or slumping team. And though it’s doubtful Segota planned his early exit, the dismissal accomplished the same results.

Wes Wade got the game-winner with 4:10 left in the third period. Wade stole a ball from Blast defender Bruce Savage in the penalty area and surprised goalkeeper Scott Manning with a hard shot that netted him his eighth goal of the season.

Wade and Rod Castro then scored back-to-back goals in a 15-second span midway through the final period to secure the victory. Like Wade, Castro finished with two goals.

With five games left in the regular season, the Sockers and St. Louis, both 22-25, lead last-place Tacoma, 19-29, by 3 1/2 games in the battle for the final Western Division playoff position.

Socker Coach Ron Newman said everything came together after Segota was red-carded. “That stirred things up for us,” he said. “It helped with the emotion, got us cranked up a bit.”

At that point, a wake-up call was exactly what the Sockers needed. They had just watched a 3-0 lead evaporate into a one-goal cushion and the Sockers--Segota included--were looking lethargic.

A collision with Manning got Segota whistled for a dangerous play foul. When Segota argued the point with Dippolito, he was given a two-minute misconduct penalty.

When Segota called Dippolito “a homer” on the way to the penalty box, Dippolito pulled a red card and banished him to the locker room for the rest of the night.

“Gino just doesn’t like me, I guess,” Segota said. “There are certain players in this league . . . where as soon as they (referees) get the chance, they throw us out.

“Tonight, the referees wanted to take over the show. That’s bad. I guess these TV games get to the referees; they want to be the ones on TV, not the players.”

Without Segota, the Sockers regrouped. Castro’s first goal, at 1:12 of the third period, restored the two-goal cushion. After Baltimore’s Mike Reybolds and Rusty Troy scored to pull the Blast even at 4-4, Wade sandwiched his two goals around another score by Castro.

‘We made a series of bad decisions defensively and got punished for it,” said Blast Coach Kenny Cooper. Baltimore’s magic number for clinching the Eastern Division title was reduced to three as a result of second-place Kansas City’s loss in Wichita Sunday.

“We were playing catch-up all night long. We made it hard on ourselves,” Cooper said.

But while the Blast was digging itself an inescapable hole, the Sockers were pulling together and proving a point.

“Maybe it’s time for the Sockers to learn how it feels to be at the bottom,” Castro said. “Maybe it’s time we see how hard it is to work to win a championship.”

Said Newman: “We’re trying to prove we can win on the road. That’s what we have to establish--that we aren’t carrying a big rock around on our backs.”

The Sockers exploited a shaky start by Manning and some lax defense to take a quick 3-0 lead.

Brian Quinn’s 15th goal of the year gave the Sockers a 1-0 advantage 5:23 into the game.