Blast Scores Seven in Half, Sockers Fall

Maybe the Sockers were feeling a little too good about themselves. They were coming off three victories in a row. They had just punctured the playoff intensity of the Baltimore Blast Tuesday before 5,450 in the Baltimore Arena.

Then 30 minutes of glory was followed by 30 minutes of “What the heck is going on?” And Baltimore won, 7-4, erasing a 3-0 halftime deficit in the third quarter with three goals in one minute, 58 seconds. The victory gives the Blast a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven MISL championship series.

“We just got caught in a brain lock,” defender George Fernandez said. “We were thinking about the Bahamas, I guess.”

The Bahamas, this isn’t. A vacation? Maybe. The Sockers didn’t offer a whole lot of resistance when the Blast shook free from their early jitters and tied a record for the most playoff goals scored in a half against the Sockers. The only other time they allowed seven in a half in the postseason was in 1987 against Kansas City.

After midfielder Brian Quinn, forward Wes Wade and midfielder Waad Hirmez scored to give the Sockers their 3-0 halftime lead, Blast Coach Kenny Cooper talked with his players.

Remember how the Sockers scored three goals against Baltimore early in the third quarter of their 6-5 victory in Game 7 of last year’s championship series? Well, Cooper decided it was worth another look, but with a different team doing the scoring.

“I told them San Diego is a cocky, arrogant team,” Cooper said. “I told them we’ve got to be cocky. We’ve got to be arrogant. Let’s take it to them.”

That they did. One minute, 26 seconds into the third quarter defender Mark Mettrick banged a deflection by goalie Victor Nogueira into the right corner. Then, 1:31 later, former Socker Paul Dougherty connected with the back of Quinn’s leg and the ball floated over Nogueira.

Newman cried foul. Quinn says it was. Dougherty admits he might not have hit too much of the ball. “If Quinn says I kicked him, maybe I did,” Dougherty said. “I went for the ball more than anything.”

Twenty seven seconds later, defender Rusty Troy tied it with a close-range shot from the right of the goal mouth.

Even when forward Paul Wright scored early in the fourth quarter to give the Sockers a 4-3 lead, Baltimore appeared to have found its touch. A minute and a half later, forward Domenic Mobilio tied it again. Soon after, Blast midfielder Freddie Thompson took advantage of a rare blunder by defender Kevin Crow and scored the game-winner.

Thinking the back was covered and the Sockers were about to go on the attack, Crow ran to challenge forward Carl Valentine, who made a fake and left Crow in the dust. Valentine passed to Mobilio, who shot wide off the boards. Thompson, positioned perfectly, headed it in for a 5-4 Blast lead.

“That was my mistake,” Crow said. “As soon as (Valentine) turned and I saw Mobilio back there, I knew.”

The Sockers used Crow as a sixth attacker a few minutes later and Baltimore scored twice. Actually, Valentine scored and then Branko Segota retreated on a ball and tried to pass but ended up putting it in the corner of the goal.

Baltimore won this game doing what it does best, finding little spaces in the defense and sending the stray bounces into the net. The Blast outshot the Sockers 33-23 and took away their composure through most of the second half.

The Blast enjoys running around until its opponent gets tired, and the Sockers have never been known as a team full of marathon runners. When it comes to stamina, the Blast has them beat. It could be that Cooper’s two-a-day practices are paying off.

Still, Baltimore is cautious about savoring this victory too much. Asked if he thought this was indicative of good things to come, Dougherty responded: “I don’t know. I wouldn’t like to say at the moment. It could go either way.”

The Sockers won’t argue. This may have been only the third time in 24 games the Sockers have lost in Game 1 of a championship series, but it also happened last year. And the Sockers rebounded to win.

“No sweat,” Fernandez said. “We played well in the first half, we just stunk up the place in the second half. We’ve just got to play the whole game.”

Said Crow: “Nobody came thinking it was going to be easy.”

Said Hirmez: “We’re still the defending champions. We’re familiar with a championship series.”

Socker Notes

Branko Segota’s first quarter assist was his 66th in the playoffs and moved him ahead of Kai Haaskivi into second on the all-time list. . . . Mark Mettrick’s goal in the third broke a playoff shutout streak of 96:53 by Socker goalie Victor Nogueira.