Sockers Beat the Splash, Stay in First

The reigning power in the Continental Indoor Soccer League’s Western Division, the San Diego Sockers, showed they still could pack a wallop when challenged by an upstart.

The Sockers, who have won 10 of 12 indoor championships, scored a 9-6 victory over the Splash on Sunday to retain their hold on first place. The Splash and Sockers will play again at 7:35 p.m. on Saturday at The Pond of Anaheim.

San Diego (11-3) got five goals from John Molomo, including two on shootouts, to drop the Splash (11-5) a game back in the standings.

“I was looking forward to this game all year,” Splash midfielder Raffaele Ruotolo said. “I’ve had great times in this building (the San Diego Sports Arena) and won a lot of championships, and it was one I wanted really bad.”

Ruotolo won three Major Indoor Soccer League titles with the Sockers and is one of three Splash starters, along with the coach, who played when the Sockers dominated the indoor game.

Ruotolo had a goal and an assist, matching MISL and CISL records for consecutive games with an assist (17). He has 24 assists, one fewer than he had in his five-year career. His power-play goal at 3 minutes 1 second into the third quarter tied the score, 5-5, but Molomo scored unassisted 1:30 later on a shootout after Doug Neely’s hand ball, and Brian Negrete added another at 11:13 to put the game out of reach.

The Splash’s Paul McDonnell, a rookie from Cal State Fullerton, had his first professional hat trick, giving him eight goals this season.

McDonnell’s final goal made it 7-6 midway in the fourth quarter, but Toby Taitano scored at 11:20 and Molomo scored an empty-net goal from midfield at 14:26 while the Sockers used a sixth attacker.

The Splash played the final 2:43 without Ruotolo (21 goals, 24 assists) and Rod Castro (19 goals, 12 assists), also a former Socker, after they drew misconduct penalties.

The Sockers led the league in penalty killing at home (75%), but the Splash was perfect in three power-play opportunities, with Dale Ervine, McDonnell and Ruotolo scoring.

The Splash also was hurt by three apparent hand balls in the penalty arch that would have provided a shootout opportunity.

“We made some mental mistakes that cost us,” Splash Coach George Fernandez said. “Whenever you give up a goal within 30 seconds in the beginning of the quarter, it’s going to hurt you, and it happened twice.”

Molomo scored 11 seconds into the game, and Rene Ortiz scored 19 seconds into the third quarter.