Sockers Steal Show, Shock Wichita : Soccer: Paul Wright kicks league-leading fifth game-winner of the season in 9-8 overtime victory. Brian Quinn plays final game tonight before joining national team.
The Wichita Wings attracted a sellout crowd of 9,686 who filed into the Kansas Coliseum on Saturday to see whether the Wings could solidify their position atop the MSL against the nine-time champion Sockers.
They could not. The Sockers, who blew a four-goal, first-quarter lead and then watched a two-goal advantage in the third quarter disappear, claimed a shocking 9-8 overtime victory when Paul Wright converted a pass from Thompson Usiyan eight minutes into the extra period.
The victory moves the Sockers (12-6) into first place, a half game ahead of the Wings (12-7).
And for the second time in what is now a four-game winning streak, the Sockers pulled it out only after going to the sixth attacker for the tying goal in regulation.
As he did four games ago, Paul Dougherty sent this one into overtime when, with only 46 seconds remaining, he deflected a shot originally aimed by Wright into the Wichita goal.
The Sockers this season are now 4-0 in overtime games on the road (and 0-1 at the Sports Arena).
It was a wild one from the start. Wichita’s Dale Ervine, bidding to become the first American player to lead the Major Soccer League in scoring, got things under way one minute seventeen seconds into the first quarter when he came out of the corner boards in a 180-degree spin to volley a pass from Tom Soehn over goalie Victor Nogueira’s head and into the net. Ervine now has 30 goals.
The quick goal appeared to reinforce Sockers’ Coach Ron Newman’s fears that his team would come out lethargic following a two-week break in the schedule.
But the Sockers scored the next five goals of the game, all in the first period. It is the first time they have scored that many in an opening quarter in their 12 indoor seasons.
Usiyan, who has had trouble finding his niche in the Sockers’ system, scored the first two and goals from Wes Wade, Jacques Ladouceur and Brian Quinn followed.
But the four-goal advantage did not hold. Wichita went on a four-goal run of its own in the second quarter to tie it at 5.
There would be two more swings of the pendulum--Dougherty and Wade would score for the Sockers only to see three more Wichita goals nullify their efforts--before Newman removed Nogueira with 2:54 remaining in favor of Kevin Crow donning the sixth-attacker jersey.
That set up Dougherty’s goal, which in turn gave Wright the opportunity to kick in his fifth game-winner of the season, most in the MSL.
It was the third overtime game-winner in Wright’s career. Coincidentally, his first such goal came exactly a year ago to the day when he gave the Sockers a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Storm.
In addition, with his goal and assist, Wright extended his point streak to eight games. He has scored 20 goals and assisted on five others in his past 10 games.
Dougherty extended his point streak to 13 games with two goals and an assist.
Two other Sockers finished with three points: Usiyan (two goals and an assist) and Quinn (a goal and two assists).
Quinn now has 299 career MSL points going into tonight’s game against Baltimore (6:05) at the Sports Arena. It will be his last as a Socker this season as he prepares to join the U.S. national team and could be his last one ever, though both Quinn and Newman hope to reach another part-time agreement next season.
