Ervine Makes Another Big Splash : Soccer: He scores three goals and adds three assists to lead Anaheim past the San Jose Grizzlies, 10-3.
Note to marketing department: Get Dale Ervine into the community or on a poster ASAP.
The Splash may not lead the Continental Indoor Soccer League in attendance this year--it drew 3,615 to The Pond of Anaheim Saturday night--but it does appear to have one of the league’s emerging superstars.
Ervine had three goals and three assists to lead the Splash to a 10-3 victory over San Jose. This coming off a three-goal performance in the team’s debut Friday night. The Splash (2-0) and Portland (2-0) lead the CISL’s Western Division. The expansion Grizzlies are 0-1.
Ervine’s performance overshadowed another outstanding defensive effort and superb individual performances by Doug Neely (three goals), Raffaele Ruotolo (goal, two assists) and goalkeeper Jorge Valenzuela (14 saves).
“He’s definitely one of the best forwards that’s ever played this game,” Splash Coach George Fernandez said of Ervine, an eight-year veteran of the Wichita Wings of the Major Soccer League. “He’s been doing it a long time, and it’s his first year in the league. I don’t know how he’ll do, but if you look at his past, he’ll do damn well in this league.”
Ervine was an indoor soccer scoring leader in 1990-91, getting 62 goals in 52 games. Already he has six goals and three assists in two.
“In the indoor game, (forward Rod Castro) and myself are going to get opportunities,” Ervine said. “It’s just whether we’ll put those chances away. The team, as a whole, has been playing well enough to get us those opportunities.”
As it did against Las Vegas, the Splash concentrated too much on individual efforts early on. Once it began playing to the open teammates, the Splash squeezed the life out of the Grizzlies.
The Splash trailed, 2-1, but scored successive goals by Paul McDonnell--the first professional goal for the rookie from Cal State Fullerton--Castro and Neely before allowing a short-handed goal 13 minutes 33 seconds into the second quarter.
As it did against Las Vegas, the Splash scored the final six goals--three in the third quarter and three in the fourth.
“At halftime, (Fernandez) wanted us to concentrate on defense,” Ervine said. “He said, ‘If they don’t score anymore, we’ll win.’ We’re solid in back and in the goal. Those guys deserve a lot of credit.”
Valenzuela was hardly tested against Las Vegas when he made nine saves, butt he was put under the gun by San Jose.
“Tonight he did get challenged on some occasions and he came up big,” said Ralph Black, who had a goal and assist. “When the game was still close, he came up with two big saves, and we need that.”
Said Fernandez: “If we keep teams to four goals a game--one per quarter--we’ll be fine, because it’s going to be very hard to keep us from scoring more than four goals.”
Splash Notes
In the CISL’s second night, defending champion Dallas (1-0) beat visiting San Diego (1-1), 6-3, in front of 10,183 in a rematch of last year’s championship series finalists; Portland (2-0) beat Carolina (0-1), 8-5, in front of 5,133 in Charlotte, N. C.; Monterrey, Mexico (1-1), beat Houston (0-1), 9-5, before 8,256 in the Astrodome; Las Vegas (1-1) defeated visiting Sacramento (0-1), 9-8, in overtime. . . . Denis Hamlett suffered a possible strained deltoid ligament 8:28 into the second quarter and skipped the remainder of the first half. He played in the second. . . . CISL Commissioner Ron Weinstein, who attended the Splash debut Friday, said the league was close to an international television package that would put games in more than 300 million homes.
