Comets End Sockers’ Win Streak

The Sockers are no longer talking about equaling their longest home winning streak. Their second longest ever expired at 14 Thursday night at the Sports Arena as the Kansas City Comets inflicted a 5-4 loss with a goal 14 minutes into overtime.

It was a goal Sockers Coach Ron Newman saw coming. Too bad his players didn’t.

“I could see he was going to run down the boards and just crack it and hope for the best,” Newman said of a Kim Roentved shot that beat Socker goalie Victor Nogueira and banked in off the far post to end the Comets’ five-game slide.

“I thought we had a lot better chances to score than that,” Newman continued. “But our shots didn’t hit off the inside of the post.”

Roentved could hardly believe the Sockers didn’t see it coming.

“It was a fast break,” he said. “And I was lucky they let me run with it until I reached the red line and I just hit it from there.”

The goal ruined a fourth-quarter comeback by the Sockers, who were down by two with less than 10 minutes left.

That’s when Branko Segota halved the Comets’ lead by winding up from behind the red line and surprising Comets goalie Mike Dowler with a shot that sneaked just inside the left post.

It was a sixth-attacker goal and before Kansas City had a chance to regroup, the Sockers were back challenging Dowler.

This time, Rod Castro was running toward a pass off the end boards from Waad Hirmez. He met the ball just outside the penalty area and put it on the same path that Segota found just inside the left post.

Only 23 seconds elapsed between goals.

By contrast, before Segota’s goal, the Sockers had not found the net since the first quarter, a span of 34:43.

A dry spell of that duration didn’t appear within the realm of possibilities early on.

Hirmez opened the scoring 5:30 into the game and three other goals followed before halftime.

That first one by Hirmez came off his own rebound. He was only a few feet from the goal, but needed the crossbar to bank the ball in.

With a minute left in the quarter, Hirmez, just inside the penalty area, scored his second of the night.

On this one, however, he needed two great passes before getting it by Dowler.

Jim Gabarra began the play by sending a long pass the length of the field to David Banks along the right boards. Both Banks and Roentved leaped for the ball. Banks leaped higher and headed it into the middle where Hirmez stood waiting.

Hirmez met the pass with a scissors kick that didn’t give Dowler a chance to react.

That made it 2-1 because between Hirmez’s goals, Kansas City’s Kevin Hundelt found an open net after running onto a pass from Ted Eck at the top of the penalty area.

Carl Valentine tied the game, 2-2, with the only goal of the second quarter. It came on a shootout attempt awarded Kansas City after Nogueira was called for a hand ball--he made a save of a Tony Glavin shot while out of the penalty area.

“He just hit it straight into my hands,” Nogueira said. “I didn’t really know where I was--I thought I was closer to the line.

“That was the game, really.”

Well, not quite. The Sockers took the tie into halftime and seemed content with it in the early going of the second half.

The Sockers appeared lethargic and Kansas City took advantage of the situation.

Less than two minutes into the third quarter, the Comets were up 3-2. With just over two minutes gone, Kansas City held a 4-2 lead.

The Comets’ first goal of the half came as a result of a Ben Collins foul near the end boards. He was whistled for taking down Eck. Eck quickly regained his balance and sent a quick restart to Iain Fraser at the top of the box. While the Sockers were flat-footed, Fraser first-timed the ball behind Nogueira.

Only 29 seconds later, Tony Glavin punctuated his third comeback to the sport.

Glavin, 32, has retired from the MSL three times--and has come back just as many. Thursday night marked his third unretirement--he took the spot on Kansas City’s roster vacated when Tom Kain retired last week. Kain may be making a few comebacks before it’s all over--he’s 27.

Anyway, Glavin showed some spryness 2:08 into the third quarter while dribbling in past the red line against Paul Dougherty.

He faked toward the middle and then went left. Dougherty let him go and Glavin fired a left-footer that gave Nogueira no chance.

It was Glavin’s first MSL goal since Feb. 3, 1989. That was before his second retirement, but more noteably, that date was the last time the Comets won in the Sports Arena.