Sockers Rally to Boot Sidekicks in Game 2 : MSL: Wright scores three, two on shootouts, to help defending champs erase 4-1 deficit.

A minute remained in the first half of Game 2 of the MSL championships, and all heads on the Dallas bench were looking up at a scoreboard that showed the Sidekicks with a one-goal lead.

They also could have been looking up for some divine intervention--that one-goal lead had been three only 15 minutes earlier.

Please, they pleaded with the time gods, let that clock tick to zero before the Sockers could strike again.

It didn’t work--the Sockers tied it with 43 seconds remaining in the half and went on to a 9-7 victory in front of 7,921 fans at the Sports Arena. Paul Wright had first career playoff hat trick.

The Sockers took a 2-0 series lead, with the series moving to Dallas for Games 3, 4 and 5, if necessary, this week.

“Well, SportsChannel must have been pleased with that one,” said Sockers Coach Ron Newman. “After the first one (a 7-3 Sockers’ victory), they said they needed a closer game.”

Early on, though, this one wasn’t close. Dallas built a 4-1 lead in the first quarter.

Newman was asked if he was concerned at that point.

“We were very concerned,” he said. “But it was early in the game, and I think many teams might be afraid of us offensively, so the lads were not concerned--they just had to be more committed to get the ball.”

Midfielder Tim Wittman concurred.

“Four to one,” he said. “That was pretty stupid. We were slow, and we didn’t go to the ball. So we better have been concerned--we had to do something. But at the same time, we knew Dallas couldn’t keep going at that rate.”

Newman often cites goals right before halftime as confidence builders that eventually lead to victories. But this time, two earlier goals provided the spark.

- Less than a minute after Tatu missed a shootout attempt early in the second quarter, Sockers defender Kevin Crow began a sequence that ended in a short-handed goal by Tim Wittman.

Crow collected a loose ball in front of his goal and pushed it to goalie Victor Nogueira, who sent a long outlet pass up to Wes Wade. Wade settled it, and then on his second touch sent a cross-carpet pass to Wittman running down the left side. Wittman went back door to pull the Sockers within two, 4-2.

It was the Sockers’ first short-handed goal in 47 games this season, and it was the first allowed by the Sidekicks. For Wittman, it kept alive a streak in which he has scored at least one short-handed goal in eight consecutive years. This is the first time he waited until the playoffs to maintain the streak.

Also, when Nogueira stopped Tatu, it was the eighth time in nine tries this year that he has denied the opposition in a shootout attempt.

- Later in the quarter, with the score 5-3, heavy pressure by the Sockers resulted in a turnover that led to a goal from Usiyan.

Paul Wright, in his own offensive end, hounded Dallas’ Jeff Agoos until Agoos tried clearing the ball upfield. The pass, however, went straight to Thompson Usiyan near the red line. After settling the ball, Usiyan sent it inside the near post to make it 5-4.

The goal was representative of how the Sockers came back from the three-goal deficit: with strong defensive pressure all over the field that forced the Sidekicks into committing turnovers.

Wade and Terry Woodberry used those same tactics with less than a minute in the quarter to take the ball away from two Dallas players along the midfield boards. Wade got the take-away, sent it to Woodberry, who gave it back to Wade in the attacking third. Instead of taking an open shot, Wade pushed the ball into the penalty area to Paul Wright, who tucked it in behind Dallas goalie Hank Henry.

That capped the comeback, but instead of coming out demoralized, Dallas came out hard in the third quarter to retake the lead.

In fact, they did so twice. Richard Chinapoo scored his second of the game after taking a long outlet from Henry two minutes into the second half to make it 6-5, and, after Wittman regained the tie, David Doyle scored his second of the game just as he did the first--off a rebound of Tatu.

Again, the Sockers maintained composure and tied it at 7 with 4 1/2 minutes left in the third. After a flurry of shots, Henry was down on the carpet having made two diving saves. But a short rebound went to Usiyan, who put the ball back on goal.

Usiyan’s shot was batted away by Doyle. The whistle blew, and the Sockers were awarded their second shootout of the game.

Like he did with the first, Wright put the shootout away, 7-7.

The Sockers went ahead for good when defender David Banks scored from the right point 26 seconds into the final quarter.

Again, good pressure resulted in a two-goal Sockers lead two minutes later. Usiyan challenged Dallas’ Kevin Smith for the ball along the left boards in the Sockers’ offensive zone. Once he came away with it, Usiyan then dribbled by Troy Snyder before shooting the ball between Henry and the near post.

“The ball is like a yo-yo on Tomo’s feet,” Newman said. “It just goes right back to his foot, and defenders defenders can’t handle that type of skill. That was a great goal.”

Series Notes

With an assist in the third quarter, Socker defender Kevin Crow passed Steve Zungul as the team’s fifth all-time leading playoff assist leader with 32. . . . Sockers defender Ben Collins said he experienced “a little soreness” in his left knee after Thursday’s Game 1. It was the first action Collins saw since March 15 and after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilage damage. “But you have to expect that,” Collins said. Collins pulled three shifts in Game 1 and was looking forward to more time Saturday. “It all depends,” he said. “If we’re winning 6-0, I’ll play a lot, but if it’s a close game, I’ll only get in a little bit. . . . I tried to bribe Paul (Wright) and (Thompson Usiyan) to score more goals so I can play. I told them I’d buy them lunch.” Collins, who earlier displayed a lack of confidence about an early return, now says if anything, he’s overconfident. “I’m trying to do too much,” he said. “Everyone keeps telling me to take it easy.”