Sockers Talk It, Walk It : MISL playoffs: The Sockers snap back at talkative St. Louis, 5-4, to win series. They’ll face Dallas in Western Division finals.

First things first.

The Sockers defeated the St. Louis Storm, 5-4, in St. Louis Arena Saturday to win the Western Division semifinal series, 3-1, and earn a berth against Dallas in the best-of-seven division championship series.

Now, a word from Socker defender George Fernandez, a virtual Hamlet in short pants.

“I’d just like to say,” said Fernandez, pausing to collect his thoughts. “This team (the Storm) all year was talking . . . about us. They said we were the worst team, we have no character, we can’t win the big game.

“I think that’s bush. To me, it seemed like they thought they were better than us. I think we proved who was better and shoved it right down their throats.

“We are the better team. We have better character. When it comes down to crunch time we can do it rather than talking about it.”

Defender Cacho added: “We talk after playing.”

It was back in February when one Storm player said this was San Diego’s worst team. The Sockers, particularly Brian Quinn and Waad Hirmez, answered Saturday before a PTA-meeting-sized crowd of 3,889.

Quinn assisted on four first-half goals, one short of veteran forward Steve Zungul’s playoff record May 25, 1985, against Baltimore. The midfielder covered both ends of the field.

“Quinn was brilliant,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said. “Top of his game.”

Perhaps it was his attitude. He never considered that his team might pull its typical disappearing act because they were a step ahead of their opponent.

The Sockers were 6-20 away from home during the regular season. Big deal. In the playoffs, notes anybody wearing blue and gold, they are 2-0.

“We wanted to win here more than anything,” said Quinn, who leads the Sockers in the playoffs with two goals and seven assists. “I’m not afraid of failure.”

Hirmez, who scored the third hat trick of his playoff career, booted in the game-winner with 2:29 remaining, banging a shot off the boards that rebounded off goalie Slobo Ilijevski’s back and into the goal. It was Hirmez’s seventh game-winning goal in the playoffs, tying him at the top of the Sockers’ list with Juli Veee, Branko Segota, Jean Willrich and Quinn.

The Sockers opened the scoring in the first quarter with the game’s cleanest goal, Quinn knocking a crossing pass to Hirmez, who followed to send a 25-footer into the right corner.

St. Louis tied it later in the quarter when midfielder Michael Collins sent a shot a few inches off the carpet in the direction of goalie Zoltan Toth. Toth appeared in position to make a diving save, but defender Ralph Black tried to block the ball, and it popped into the top of the goal.

Storm forward Thompson Usiyan made it 2-1 when he capitalized on a Toth deflection from just outside the goal mouth.

A little more than a minute later, Quinn scrapped with Ilijevski, who came out of the goal box in an attempt to clear the ball. Quinn won, turned and sent a pass across the middle to forward Paul Wright, who beat defender Daryl Doran to tie it.

With two Sockers and one Storm player in the penalty box, St. Louis made good on a four-on-three advantage, midfielder Claudio De Oliveira scoring off the thigh of defender Kevin Crow.

By halftime, the Sockers were back on top, 4-3, Quinn assisting on a goal by forward Rod Castro and another by Hirmez. Dropping into a more defensive game in the third quarter, the Sockers held the Storm scoreless, but took just two of their 24 total shots.

St. Louis tied it again 5:57 into the fourth quarter, when defender Mark Frederickson followed Toth’s deflection of a shot by forward Stan Terlecki and sent it into the top right corner.

Toth, now 3-0 in the playoffs, might not have been as sharp as he was Tuesday, but he made 23 saves. It was a busy night considering St. Louis took 16 more shots than the Sockers.

Segota has yet to find the playoff form that has made him so valuable to past Socker championship teams. He was without a point Saturday and had just four in the series.

“I’m not upset,” he said. “I didn’t score, but we won. That’s what the name of the game is.”

The playoff game is one the Sockers are quite familiar with. By contrast, this is new stuff to the Storm, an expansion franchise. If the Sockers were only slightly more talented, they proved to be significantly more cerebral.

And to that, Storm Coach Don Popovic can only tip his hat.

“San Diego is a great team,” he said. “I think it will be a much more difficult series in Dallas for them because Dallas is more disciplined than us. If they get past Dallas, I think they will definitely win the championship.”

One thing to remember: The Sockers are 28-28, .500 for the first time since they were 10-10 on Jan. 12. A sign of better things to come?

“Damn right,” Fernandez said. “I think we’re hungry to play Dallas.”

Socker Notes

This is the schedule for the Dallas series: Games 1 and 2, Friday and Saturday in Dallas. Games 3, 4 and 5, May 18, 20, 22 in San Diego. Games 6 and 7, May 24 and 26 in Dallas.