Sockers Continue Mastery of Division Leader Dallas

Socker Coach Ron Newman’s face was red, and his step was brisk. The Sockers were filtering out of the locker room on their way to pre-game warmups, and Newman was making sure nobody exited thinking about who Johnny’s guests would be on “The Tonight Show.”

“Important game,” he yelled. “Anybody who doesn’t want to play, stay here.”

There were no takers.

For some reason, the Sockers (23-26) can handle the Dallas Sidekicks, whom they defeated, 4-3, Friday in a scuffle witnessed by 9,008 at the San Diego Sports Arena. The victory over Dallas, which entered the game with the best winning percentage (.617) in the MISL and went home with a 3-5 season record against the Sockers, left the Sockers one victory from clinching a playoff berth.

This the same team that is 6 1/2 games behind the Sidekicks (29-19) in the Western Division standings. These are the same Sockers who have lost five of seven games against last-place Tacoma.

But when it counted most, the Sockers attacked and counter-attacked and managed to hang on after Sidekick midfielder Mark Karpun banged a shot that would have tied it off the crossbar in the final minutes.

Minutes before, Dallas had become frustrated with their inability to crack the Sockers’ defense, which to that point had held them to a first-quarter Willie Molano goal and a power-play goal 25 seconds into the fourth quarter by midfielder Bruno Ferretti.

So the Sidekicks were seeing red. And then yellow.

With the Sockers leading, 4-2, Dallas was assessed three yellow cards in 41 seconds. Defender Doc Lawson was called for charging, defender Troy Snyder for tripping and Sidekick Coach Billy Phillips for unsportsmanlike conduct.

That gave the Sockers a super power play, a two-man advantage. And they failed to capitalize.

“It’s not good,” Newman said, “but we lost the ball too many times.”

It isn’t as if the Sockers are used to success on the power play. They have now gone 10 power plays in a row without a goal.

“I can’t even remember when we capitalized on a power play,” defender Ralph Black said. “When you have the talent we have, you have to come out with at least one goal. At least.”

Since that didn’t happen, the Sockers were left to wrap things up with a lot of running and perspiration. Karpun scored with 2:28 to play to pull the Sidekicks within a goal, but the only noise they made the rest of the way was in the locker room, where Phillips used a few choice adjectives to tell his players what he thought of their performance.

The Sockers started early, when Branko Segota took a crossing pass from Wes Wade and drilled it to the right of goalie Joe Papaleo just 19 seconds into the game. After Molano tied it, midfielder Brian Quinn recaptured the lead for the Sockers when he booted in a ball juggled off the foot of Wade at the goal mouth.

Midfielder Paul Wright scored late in the third quarter after colliding with Papaleo, falling to the ground, getting up and sending the ball into the net while Papaleo was sprawled on his back. Forward Rod Castro made it 4-1 early in the fourth quarter, weaving around defender Mike Powers and hitting a 25-footer across the carpet into the left corner.

Still in question after this victory is whether the Sockers can achieve similar success on the road, where they have won just six of 25 games.

“We don’t play with the same enthusiasm and emotion on the road,” defender Kevin Crow said. “It’s too inconsistent. We play one good game. We play one bad game. We get too jovial with a simple win.”

Said Quinn: “We seem to put in extra effort at home. If we’re going to get into the playoffs (and be successful there), we’ve got to do exactly the same thing on the road.”

Socker Notes

Defender Don Cogsville is expected to be out four weeks with a right knee injury. Cogsville took himself out of the Sockers’ 3-1 loss to Tacoma Thursday night. “I’ve been playing with it for at least 25 games,” he said. “It just got unbearable. I’ve actually been hiding it quite a bit.” Midfielder Ben Collins has been sidelined with a right foot sprain since March 31 and may not play again this season. Midfielder Waad Hirmez returned to the lineup Friday after missing three games with a right hamstring injury. . . . Friday’s game was the final regular season meeting between the Sockers and Sidekicks. In all likelihood, the Sockers will play St. Louis in the Western Division semifinals for the right to meet Dallas in the division finals. . . . Defender George Fernandez extended his streak of consecutive games played to 129.