Sockers Avert Third-Quarter Collapse, but Still Lose in Overtime

The Sockers could break only one string Saturday night, but the big one, a home losing streak which now has reached four games, continued.

This time, the Wichita Wings clipped the Sockers, 6-5, in overtime. It was the third time this year the Sockers have lost in overtime at the Sports Arena.

Terry Rowe got the game-winner about two minutes into the extra session when he pounced on a rebound five feet in front of the goal and put it high into the net. Wichita was on a power play at the time. Forty-four seconds before the game ended, Ben Collins was asked to sit two minutes for tripping.

The loss was especially difficult for the Sockers, because for the first time this year, they did not self-destruct in the third quarter.

Entering the game, the Sockers had allowed nine third-quarter goals in three home games while scoring only two.

Saturday, the Sockers (3-7) didn’t score any goals in the quarter, but they limited Wichita to one.

That came with six minutes remaining in the quarter, when Dale Ervine got past a Collins slide tackle and went one-on-one with Sockers goalie Victor Nogueira. Ervine beat Nogueira to the right side to tie the score, 3-3.

For a while, it looked as if the Sockers would pull out a victory. They came out strong in the fourth quarter, overcoming a one-goal deficit and taking a one-goal lead with about four minutes to go.

The Sockers’ lead came as a result of Wichita’s Victor Moreland using his face to block a shot.

Moreland had to sacrifice his head when Waad Hirmez sent in a shot on goal with his left foot.

Moreland was standing 10 feet in front of the line when Hirmez’s shot banked off his face. The shot was so hard that the carom carried all the way to midfield where defender Alex Golovnia put in another shot on goal.

It was a soft shot and had no chance of getting by Kris Peat, Wichita’s second goalie of the evening, until, that is, Michael Collins got a foot on it five feet in front of the nets and redirected it high into the right corner.

That gave the Sockers a 5-4 lead, but Wichita sent it into overtime when Brad Smith scored a sixth-attacker goal with 1 1/2 minutes remaining.

Rookie Jimmy McGeough scored the game’s first goal one minute nine seconds into the game as he volleyed a crossing pass from Perry Van Der Beck past Nogueira from 15 feet.

It was the first of two goals for McGeough in the first half. He also scored with about two minutes remaining in the second quarter when he tapped in a rebound.

But between McGeough’s two goals, the Sockers scored three, one each from Paul Dougherty, Alex Golovnia and Hirmez.

For Golovnia, a former Soviet national team player who is playing indoor soccer for the first time, it was his first goal in the Major Soccer League.

Hirmez’s goal moved him ahead of Kaz Deyna and Steve Zungul into fourth on the Sockers’ all-time scorers list with 119 goals. The goal also extended Hirmez’s point streak to six games.

Socker Notes

The crowd, most of which attended the game with discount tickets on American Youth Soccer Assn. night, was the largest of the year. . . . Wichita goalie Ron Fearon left the game in the second quarter when he sustained a sprained neck after a collision with a Socker player.