Sockers Beat Dallas Behind Banks’ Roll : Soccer: Rookie gets a hat trick in 10-8 victory over the Sidekicks. Defenders account for half of the San Diego scoring.

SAN DIEGO — Sockers rookie defender David Banks says he only scores goals in his sleep.

Thursday night at the Sports Arena, he scored three while Dallas defenders were asleep. It was the first hat trick of his career and helped the Sockers to a 10-8 victory over the last-place Sidekicks (13-21) in front of 5,011.

“I haven’t scored a goal for a while,” Banks said. “I had a dream last night that I would score one.

“And here’s Alex (Golovnia, another first-year defender) scoring a goal a game almost. He’s been leaving me behind.”

No longer. Both defenders now have seven goals on the season.

Still, Banks said offensive prowess is not his aim.

“I’m not really trying to get many points,” he said. “I’d rather find myself as a defender before I become a goal scorer. But then in this league, even defenders have to score goals.”

Five of the Sockers’ 10 goals were scored by defenders. Beside the three from Banks, Kevin Crow and Ben Collins put in one apiece.

Banks scored the Sockers’ first goal and evened the score, 1-1, after taking a long pass from Waad Hirmez and and firing a 30-footer past rookie goalie Lynn Venable.

His second goal was also off a pass from Hirmez, this time on a free kick from the red line that Hirmez aimed at the far post. Banks stepped in front of defender Pedro DeBrito and took the pass, deflecting the ball in to give the Sockers a 5-4 lead with 5:25 left in the half.

“That’s every defender’s nightmare,” Banks said about stepping in front of DeBrito. “It has happened to me a couple times. Plus Waady hit a great ball--it was smooth and straight to the far post.”

Hirmez finished the night with three points, adding a goal to his two assists, and Jim Gabarra had two goals and two assists.

The 10 goals were the most the Sockers have scored in a game this season--but they were barely enough to overcome a defensive lapse which Coach Ron Newman referred to as a “hiccup.”

“I thought we were due for that sort of game,” Newman said. “I could feel it in my bones. We just had several players who were far below their normal performances.”

Added Banks, “We have beaten them so many times that everyone just got a little cocky and figured Dallas would be an easy win, but they have a new coach that they want to prove something to.”

But if the Sockers were cocky, they almost had a right to be. They have limited Dallas to one goal in the two teams’ past two games. Even Dallas Coach Gordon Jago appeared to write off the game as a loss by starting the third-string Venable.

“We were the underdogs coming in,” Jago explained. “And I thought that would put no pressure on Lynn. If we lost, well, OK.”

But it wasn’t Venable’s doing that allowed the Sockers to tally 10 times.

“It was the people in front of him who let him down,” Jago said. “Lynn was not at fault for any of the goals except one. We gave up three goals on free kicks and that was just disastrous.”

Sockers Notes

The Sockers left early this morning for Kansas City, where they will take on the East-leading Comets (18-14) at 5:35 tonight (delayed at 11 p.m. on KCEO-AM 1000). After losing the season opener to the Comets, the Sockers have won two in a row against them. Backup goalie Savva Biller will get a start either tonight or Sunday in Wichita (12:35 p.m., live on XTRA 690). . . . With U.S. national team Coach Bob Gansler said to be in his final weeks at the helm, Sockers Coach Ron Newman is making it known he would like to be considered for the position. National team officials, however, have made it known the search for a replacement will be conducted outside of this country, reasoning that Gansler surfaced as the best U.S. coach when a search was conducted here. Newman scoffed at that. “Bob Gansler got the opportunity with no qualifications at all,” Newman said, referring to the fact Gansler’s previous position was coach at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “To say that is insulting, really.”

Many see the position as a no-win situation because the U.S. talent level is so far below that of other countries. Newman does not. “I’ve never doubted my ability to put together a championship team,” he said. “It’s not going to be that easy for whoever gets it, but it’s not going to be impossible, either. I think I could come up with the right ingredients to come up with a surprisingly good American team. I have great confidence in the American player.”