Sockers Roll Past the Blast : MSL: Controversy surrounds Nogueira’s ejection, but San Diego whips Baltimore, 8-1.

The Sockers, who thought they went through the first four months of the season without a backup goalie, inadvertently found out they had one on their roster all along.

Starter Victor Nogueira, who tied Alan Mayer for the club record for most consecutive starts by a goalie (43) Saturday, was issued a red-card ejection with three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

The Sockers went on to an 8-1 victory over the Blast behind the goalkeeping of defensive runner Wes Wade.

Nogueira was booked after he arm-gestured Blast forward Jean Harbor, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound first-year player.

Moments before the ejection and after Nogueira collected a ball along the end boards and distributed it upfield, Harbor went in on the goalie with his right leg up, slamming Nogueira into the boards.

“He went over the top and hit me,” Nogueira said. “He could’ve damaged some ligaments. Obviously it was a foul, but they (game referees) are not going to call a foul when the other team is losing.”

The game was officiated by Herb Silva and Casey Frankeweicz.

“If I came down on his leg,” Harbor said, “he wouldn’t be able to play. It was a 50-50 ball and I went for it, that’s all.”

Added Blast Coach Kenny Cooper, “When a goalkeeper comes out for the ball, there is going to be contact made. Jean Harbor is not a dirty player.”

There was no whistle after the initial incident. But after a stoppage in play Nogueira made eye contact with Harbor, who was up field, and gestured at him. Silva, at the opposite end, then blew his whistle and sent Nogueira off.

“Silva is very sharp,” Nogueira said, derision evident in his tone. “He sees everything. . . .

“They keep trying to do something to hurt the Sockers. But Wes is a good goalie, and they just gave him a chance to prove it.”

Wade--who played a sixth-attacker style, stepping up into the midfield while the Sockers were on attack--did not allow a goal the rest of the way. He faced four shots and made two saves.

The only goal Nogueira allowed was somewhat controversial. It came six minutes into the second quarter and nine seconds after Paul Dougherty scored to give the Sockers a 4-0 lead.

On the re-start after Dougherty’s goal, Blast forward Dominic Mobilio was at least 10 yards offsides, but the referees allowed play to continue.

Sure enough, Mobilio met the ball along the end boards to the left of the post and sent a crossing pass through the goal mouth where Joe Koziol met it and put it behind Nogueira.

“He was way past my bench,” Newman said about Mobilio’s early start. “I thought (Silva) was going to blow his whistle. Then we do the same thing (on the ensuing re-start), and he calls it. That just goes to show there are two sets of rules.”

Newman made light of Nogueira’s red-card gesture.

“He’s been doing some weights,” the coach quipped. “And I think he was just testing his muscle and it was misconstrued.”

With the victory, the Sockers (21-8) maintain their five-game lead over second-place Dallas (15-15), the only other MSL team without a losing record.

The Sockers mounted a 4-0 lead during the first 21 minutes, and the Blast simply could not come back.

Dougherty led the offensive barrage, finishing with three goals, and Tim Wittman added two others.

Paul Wright, the league’s leading goal-scorer, got his 40th of the season to make it 5-1 midway through the third quarter. Wright, not known for his passing skills, nevertheless set up three other goals. He now has 20 assists.

Other goals came from Kevin Crow and Thompson Usiyan.

Sockers Notes

The game was played in front of a cap night crowd of 11,567. . . . Getting ejected paid off for goalie Victor Nogueira. After the game, several fans came down to give him money to help pay the fine. By 10:20, he had collected over $100, according to Sockers’ media services coordinator Jim Moorhouse. Nogueira had never received a card. . . . The ejection came a year to the day since the Sockers last were issued a red card. Branko Segota received one March 1, 1991.

A group of former Sockers calling themselves Sockers Magic will take the field at the University of San Diego today at 2 p.m. George Katakalidas, Juli Veee, Jean Willrich, Ade Coker and Vidal Fernandez, among others, will play a South Bay Select team. All proceeds will go to area youth soccer organizations. Admission is $3. A crowd of more than 1,000 is expected. . . . Forward Zico Doe, who began the year on the Sockers’ 16-man roster only to be cut, then re-signed as a developmental player, stepped on the field for the first time since November in the second quarter of Saturday’s game. A second later Paul Dougherty scored to give the Sockers a 4-0 lead.

The team announced the signing of goalie Curtis McAlister to a developmental contract. The move was made before today’s roster-freeze deadline. McAlister, 23, played three years at San Diego State and has been training with the Sockers’ Auto Trader reserves since the start of the season. . . . There are 35 days left in the season. The Sockers play five more home games and six road games. Already the club’s public relations department has begun a “magic number” countdown. For the record, the team’s magic number to clinch a playoff spot is four over the Blast. To clinch the regular-season championship, it is six over the Dallas Sidekicks, who beat Cleveland, 11-5, in front of 9,027 Saturday at Reunion Square Arena.