Sockers Coast to Victory Over Crippled Sidekicks : MSL: Wright reaches 50-goal plateau in 7-1 triumph. Injury to Dallas goalie could be a factor in playoffs.

Having lost three in a row and five of the past six, the Sockers were looking for a momentum swing in Saturday’s season finale against the Dallas Sidekicks.

The Sidekicks were more than accommodating, playing without leading scorer Tatu, third-leading scorer Jan Goossens and goalie Joe Papaleo. The shell of the team that remained bowed to the Sockers, 7-1, in front of 8,521 at the Sports Arena and gave the Sockers the lift they sought entering the semifinals.

“We wanted to prove something tonight,” said forward Paul Wright, who scored two goals to finish with 50 for the season, the first time in his career he has reached that mark. “And I think we proved it.”

The Sockers’ tailspin began only after they clinched a playoff spot March 13. They were the first team to do so and and that point it also was apparent the team would clinch first place.

“It’s kind of hard to get motivated when you really don’t have much to play for,” Wright further explained. “No matter what the coach tells you, it’s just hard to get up for a game that means nothing.”

While Tatu and Goossens were expected to be rested Saturday, Papaleo’s absence was forced when he suffered torn cartilage in his right knee during Dallas’ victory at Wichita on Friday.

Papaleo, reached at home in Dallas where he underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test earlier in the day, said he expects to be out for the entire playoffs.

Besides the torn cartilage, the MRI showed an abnormal reading on Papaleo’s anterior cruciate ligament, which was surgically reconstructed after the 1988-89 season.

Papeleo will undergo further tests on Monday to determine if the ACL needs repair.

The injury could prove devestating to both the Sidekicks and the Sockers.

The Sidekicks will have to go with back-up Hank Henry, who was listed on the pregame injury report as “out” with a fractured left thumb, but played anyway on Saturday.

In his seven previous starts, Henry had won only once and compiled bloated a goals-against average of 6.78. It is expected Henry will provide Cleveland (Dallas’ semifinal opponent) a much wider target than would have Papaleo, the MSL’s second-leading goalie this season.

How does that affect the Sockers? If they escape their semifinal series against Baltimore, Cleveland would be a much more formidable foe than Dallas. The Sockers won their season series against the Sidekicks, 4-3. The Crunch, however, were the only team in the MSL with a winning record against the Sockers, 4-2.

But the Sockers can’t worry about other teams’ injury problems. They’ve given themselves too much to think about already with their recent swoon of losses.

But even that can be pushed to the back of their minds with Saturday’s victory.

Besides Wright returning to form, defender Jimmy McGeough and goalie Victor Nogueira also shined.

McGeough’s emergence could be critical during the playoffs. He has replaced injured Ben Collins, last year’s Most Valuable Player during the playoffs, who will be unable to play in the upcoming playoffs.

“I’m very pleased with Jimmy,” Coach Ron Newman said. “Jimmy’s really filling that hole for us. He reads well, he sees well, and he’s a very safe-type player.”

MSL Notes

With the victory, Sockers goalie Victor Nogueira brought his goals-against average down to 4.60. So for a Major Soccer League record of three consecutive seasons Nogueira won the goalkeeper of the year award, given annually to the goalie with the lowest GAA. . . . Tim Wittman has now scored a short-handed goal in seven consecutive seasons.