Sockers Hold On to Edge : MISL: Sockers’ 6-1 victory over Tacoma, coupled with St. Loius’ loss, gives them the home-field advantage in first round of playoffs.

It happened at 7:47 p.m. Saturday. Suddenly, after a season in which the Sockers have played more like defending chumps than defending champs, things weren’t so bad.

An announcement came over the loudspeaker that the Dallas Sidekicks had defeated the St. Louis Storm in Dallas.

The crowd of 8,733 jumped to its feet and, soon after, the Sockers (25-27) jumped all over Tacoma (20-32) to take a 6-1 victory. This earned them second place ahead of St. Louis and a much-needed home-field advantage in their five-game semifinal playoff series with the Storm. Socker Coach Ron Newman might have been one of the few who wasn’t overly excited with the announcement.

“Didn’t mean anything to me,” he said. “What was going on over there was not my concern as much as what we were doing here.”

Yeah, OK. But you should have seen the smile on Socker owner Ron Fowler’s face. Might this have been a little bit of a surprise? Finishing so convincingly? Winning their eighth consecutive home game?

“Quite honestly,” Fowler said, “we’ve felt all along we’ve had the talent. We just haven’t showed it.”

It was the best-kept secret in the Major Indoor Soccer League. A St. Louis player at one point said this was the worst Sockers team he had ever seen. For a team that has won seven championships, opponents weren’t acting too terribly intimidated.

Defender Kevin Crow reflected on that before the Sockers’ 4-3 victory over Wichita Friday.

“I personally don’t think either one of these two teams (Wichita and Tacoma) have a lot of respect for us,” he said. “That’s something that bothers me.”

So he and his teammates did something about it.

Damir Haramina started things off midway through the first quarter, taking a pass from midfielder Brian Quinn, volleying it off his chest and drilling it by goalie Cris Vaccaro. Less than a minute after the crowd was informed of Dallas’ 6-3 victory over St. Louis, forward Paul Wright followed the rebound from a Waad Hirmez shot and booted it in to make it 2-0.

Before the first quarter ended, defender George Fernandez recovered from nearly tripping over the ball, weaved around defender Brian Schmetzer and scored from 30 feet. Midfielder Jacques Ladouceur followed with two second-quarter goals to give the Sockers a 5-0 halftime lead.

It got so bad for the Stars that Coach Keith Weller, Newman’s former assistant who left for Tacoma in the middle of this season, opted to use a sixth attacker with 7:20 remaining in the second quarter. All that did was make it easier for Ladouceur to get his second goal.

“We’ve been pulling the goalie quite regularly because we’ve been behind,” Weller said. “And we’ve been quite successful.”

Weller was duly impressed with the performance of his former players.

“They seem to be fired up right now, don’t they?” Weller said. “I think everybody has been waiting for them to get into the groove. I thought they played very well.”

Goalie Victor Nogueira helped the Sockers hold Tacoma in check during the second half, making saves on several tricky shots with his feet. He finished with 12 saves, improving his record to 11-13.

Nogueira has been hampered by a right knee strain and wasn’t scheduled to start. But since Zoltan Toth has started the past three games, Nogueira figured he needed to get in some work before the playoffs.

“I was getting nervous,” he said. “I didn’t want to be rusty.”

If all of this was nice medicine to heal the Sockers’ bruised psyche, it doesn’t answer what is undoubtedly the biggest question in their push to defend their championship. Can they win on the road? Remember, these guys were 6-20 this year away from San Diego.

Even Newman isn’t able to answer that. He is satisfied with what he saw this weekend.

“This was all we can hope for,” he said. “Winning the last two games, playing well and playing with intensity.”

Bring on St. Louis says Fernandez.

“I’m real pumped up,” he said. “I can feel it. I’m ready now. I think the boys are ready, too.”

Socker Notes

Defender Kevin Crow, who took a knee in the jaw from Wichita goalie Ron Fearon during the Sockers’ 4-3 victory Friday, returned to the lineup and played full shifts Saturday. Defender Cacho missed his second game in a row with a left knee strain but said he will be ready for the playoffs. . . . Here is the schedule for the Sockers semifinal playoff series with the Storm: Games one and two in San Diego April 28 and 30. Game three in St. Louis May 1. If necessary, game four in St. Louis May 5 and game five in San Diego May 8.