Sockers Get Closer to the Top With 8-4 Victory Against Tacoma

Two weeks ago, the Tacoma Stars had a handsome three-game lead in the Major Soccer League West and had won three in a row.

But Thursday night, after their second straight defeat in the Tacoma Dome, 8-4, to the San Diego Sockers, the Stars were looking over their shoulders.

Tacoma’s lead over the St. Louis Storm dropped to only a game and the Sockers (11-10) climbed to within 1 1/2 games of first.

The Sockers picked up ground in the West race with a potent attack led by Paul Dougherty (two goals and an assist), two goals each by Jim Gabarra and Waad Hirmez, and a goal and two assists from Branko Segota.

Too, the Sockers’ defense Thursday, anchored by goalie Victor Noguiera, was suffocating the Stars at almost every turn.

This night it was not so much a tired, spiritless effort by Tacoma, but rather a sharp performance by the Sockers.

“I thought they were super sharp,” Stars Coach Keith Weller said. “It’s easy to say when you get beat like that. But we didn’t have any luck at all around the goal. I don’t want to take anything away from them.”

Noguiera, who had 15 saves, said the Sockers’ defense keyed it.

“Basically, we shut them down defensively. They’ve been doing that to other teams, so that’s what we did to them.”

The victory was impressive because it was San Diego’s fourth in its past five road games.

“We had one hiccup in Cleveland where we just stunk the place up,” Sockers Coach Ron Newman said. “Sometimes you do that and regroup and refocus.

“We really needed to take a look to see if we were as good as we think we are. So we wanted to take on the best team. Tacoma being up there at the top gave us that momentum to play as well as we could.

“Everybody was up for us. It was an important game, because we had to keep the race tight. It was a good performance with everybody back.”

Dougherty suggested that the Sockers matched Tacoma’s work rate--and that was a key.

“We needed to,” he said. “They got some good players and good work rates. We knew that was one of the things we needed to do coming into the building.”

The Sockers took charge of the game by the 2:41 mark of the third quarter, when Segota fired a low half-volley from the circle that bounded off the hands of Tacoma keeper Cris Vaccaro and inside the left post for a 5-2 lead.

Socker Notes

Noguiera started his 22nd consecutive game to pass Volkmar Gross for the second-longest string in club history.