Fighting Sockers Beaten by St. Louis in Overtime

The Sockers blew an opportunity to gain home field advantage for the first round of the MISL playoffs when rookie Dan Donigan scored his second goal of the season 5:30 into overtime Sunday night to give the St. Louis Storm a 2-1 victory at St. Louis Arena.

The Sockers had problems before even leaving for St. Louis. Midfielder Brian Quinn didn’t make the trip because his wife, Sharon, who is seven months pregnant, suffered an appendicitis attack on Saturday.

Problems continued in St. Louis. At the conclusion of the second quarter, midfielder Waad Hirmez and Socker Coach Ron Newman had words while going off the field and butted heads. Hirmez didn’t play the rest of the game.

The Sockers (23-27) then tired in the second half after tying the game, 1-1. With the victory, St. Louis (23-27) clinched the season series five games to three and moved into a tie with the Sockers for second place in the Western Division. A Socker victory would have given them home field advantage for their five-game Western Division semifinal playoff series with the Storm. Each team has two games remaining. St. Louis will have home field advantage if the teams are tied at the conclusion of the regular season.

The winning goal was set up when forward Michael Collins picked up the ball at midfield and hit forward Claudio De Oliveira outside the penalty box. De Oliveira drew defender Ralph Black to him and passed to Donigan, who tapped a shot past goalie Zoltan Toth.

“It almost looked like the old San Diego Traders,” Newman said. “We had a lot of developmental players on the field. We tired in the second half. The boys played their guts out, but we came up short. That’s been our story all year.”

Hirmez wouldn’t comment on his differences with Newman. Newman told Hirmez near the end of the half that he needed to get back on defense more quickly. The two argued and were eventually separated by several players.

“It was a pure case of insubordination, plain and simple,” Newman said. “I’m the boss and he didn’t agree with me.”

The Sockers tied the game 8:56 into the fourth quarter when forward Damir Haramina scored his fifth goal of the season. Branko Segota knocked a pass off the boards, and Haramina beat goalie Slobo Ilijevski.

Segota almost won the game with 50 seconds remaining, blasting a shot from outside the penalty box that Ilijevski punched wide.

“Slobo played great,” Storm Coach Don Popovic said. “He has played well against San Diego all year. The guy is amazing.”

Segota also had a good chance to score in overtime, but Ilijevski came out of the goal to stop him point blank. On the rebound, forward Jim Gabarra shot from midfield and Ilijevski dived backward to make the save.

“We started off poor and we looked tired,” Newman said. “I kept telling the guys to get going.”

Forward Thompson Usiyan put St. Louis in front, 1-0, with 3:34 remaining in the third quarter. De Oliveira hit a pass near the midfield to Usiyan, who lofted a soft shot over Toth’s right shoulder into the net.

Neither team had many scoring chances in the second quarter. Socker forward Rod Castro opened the quarter hitting the post from 20 yards. Segota raced down the left sideline late in the quarter and fired a shot off Socker defender Ralph Black that Ilijevski caught.

The Sockers had virtually no offense in the first quarter. The Storm opened the game with good scoring chances from Marcio Leite and Godfrey Ingram. Leite hit the far right post on one shot, and Toth stopped Ingram twice inside the box within a matter of seconds.