It Looks Easy for Sockers

Every year about playoff time, Brian Quinn has people come up to him and say things such as: “This is when you guys always play well and win championships.”

Quinn, a Socker midfielder, would like it to be known that it’s not as easy as it sounds. Sure, the Sockers have won seven of the past eight indoor soccer titles, but he doesn’t like it when people act as if it’s served to the Sockers on Thanksgiving china.

He gives a very simple explanation for their recent success.

“Just playing well,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. We’re playing better. That was our best all-around performance.”

The thing is, the Sockers made it look so easy in a 5-2 victory over the Baltimore Blast in Game 3 of the MISL championship series Saturday that Quinn is going to have more trouble than ever convincing anybody that this isn’t mystique or magic. The victory was witnessed by an MISL playoff-high 11,014 in the San Diego Sports Arena and it gave the Sockers a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Their best game of the season?

“I don’t know,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said. “I think we’ve played better than that. I thought we played well, but there were spells when we didn’t look so good.”

In many games, the Sockers have made it entertaining by taking a lead, losing it and then coming up with a late goal to pull it out. Or not.

This one was essentially over at halftime, when the Sockers held a 4-0 lead because of four well-executed goals and a lot of hard work up and down the field. There were no cheap bounces.

It all started midway through the first quarter when the Sockers went on a power play after Blast midfiedler Billy Ronson was called for tripping. Forward Paul Wright made on a nice fake in front of the left boards and sent a pass back to midfielder Branko Segota, who sent it in off the leg of goalie Scott Manning.

Then, with 1:42 remaining in the first, forward Jim Gabarra sent a soft pass into the middle to forward Wes Wade, who banged it quickly into the left corner to give the Socker a 2-0 lead.

With one second remaining in the quarter, Segota gave the fans a replica of the goal he scored Thursday in Baltimore, standing on the ball for a second before pushing it to his right, spinning around forward Mark Mettrick and lining it into the left corner. Midfielder Waad Hirmez gave Segota the ball, sending a pass through the legs of defender Mike Stankovic.

Certainly, this was further evidence that Segota has pulled himself out of his slump and, maybe, that he doesn’t care too much about the regular season. It took longer this year than in previous years, but Segota is finally playing playoff soccer.

“I’m feeling much better,” he said. “I’m starting to enjoy the game again. For a while there, I was miserable, and I didn’t feel like talking to anybody.”

Wright did his talking before the game, saying essentially that the only way Baltimore could stop him was with fouls. He backed his words, picking up two assists, the second of which came in in the second quarter. He scorched down the sidelines past Ronson, who did his best to grab him on the way, and passed into the goal mouth to midfielder Ben Collins, who touched it in.

Wright didn’t make any retractions afterward.

“I don’t want to take anything back,” he said. “They know who I am and I know who they are. (The fouls) are to be expected. That’s the only chance they have of stopping me.”

Blast Coach Kenny Cooper would like his team to forget Wright’s comments and worry more about the Sockers. He told them so in his post-game speach.

“He’s a young guy,” Cooper said. “He’s entitled to say what he wants. You don’t put a muzzle on people.”

Forward Rod Castro ended the Sockers’ scoring late in the third quarter, taking a pass from Hirmez and sending it past Manning, who charged out and tried to make a foot save.

The Blast got two fourth-quarter goals from forward Domenic Mobilio and Mettrick. That was it.

With victories in the next two games, the Sockers would win this series at home, something they couldn’t manage last season when they took a 3-1 series lead into the final game in San Diego and lost. What are the chances?

“I don’t want to get too cocky,” defender George Fernandez said. “If we keep on playing the way we’re playing right now, we could do it. It’s going to be tough. They’re not going to give it to us.”

Cooper will attest to that.

“It’s not going to be over here,” he said. “Oh, no, no, no. We’re going to win a game. It’s that simple.”

Unfortunately for the Blast, nothing was simple on Saturday.

Socker Notes

Baltimore defender Mike Reynolds did not play Saturday because of a right ankle sprain he suffered in the first quarter of Game 2. . . . Socker Coach Ron Newman opted to stick with his goalie rotation, starting Victor Nogueira over Zoltan Toth, who was superb in Game 2. Newman said Toth had a stiff neck in practice Saturday but will be the starter in Game 4. . . . Baltimore goalie Scott Manning has started eight of the Blast’s nine playoff games. Since Billy Ronson was in as a sixth attacker with the score tied in Game 2, Manning wasn’t credited with the loss.