Fighting Words Stir Sockers : Sockers: Quote in newspaper causes commotion, rush on newspapers in Cleveland.

To the disbelief of the gift shop clerk in the Sockers’ hotel, all of Friday’s local newspapers were gone by noon.

“We never sell out of Plain Dealers,” the clerk insisted.

On Friday, they did and if the theory that sensational headlines sell newspapers is true, then the one that caused the rush at the hotel was: “Hoggan says Crunch will sweep here.”

Sensational? The headline was simply inaccurate.

The quote attributed to David Hoggan, a Crunch midfielder, was this: “I think a sweep is very possible.”

Still, Hoggan’s teammates were upset with the statement.

“That’s just something you don’t say,” said George Fernandez, a Crunch defender. “You don’t put fuel on the fire. . . . We have a lot of confident, cocky, whatever you want to call it, players on this team who believe we’re better than the Sockers. And it’s scary in a way. I don’t think (my teammates) give (the Sockers) enough respect.”

Hoggan said he was misquoted. “I never said that. I said something like, ‘It would be nice to win three in a row.’ ”

Nevertheless, the Sockers took exception to the comment.

“Whenever someone says something like that we try to shut them up” said Socker forward Rod Castro, who scored two goals in Friday’s 6-5 victory over Cleveland in Game 3 of the Major Soccer League championship series. “I mean, who the hell are they? They’re a second-year team and we’re the champions. We just had to show them that and tonight we did.”

Ron Newman, Socker coach, said the Crunch might not be giving the Sockers their due respect.

“Maybe because they blew us out in a couple games (during the regular season), they are getting (a cocky attitude),” Newman said. “But we had to prove to them that we’re still the champions and that we still know how to play the game.”