INDOOR SOCCER : Ervine Stays Home as Splash Tumbles in Portland, 7-4

Dale Ervine, the Splash’s leading scorer who was benched for the first time in his career, did not make the trip to Portland on Sunday.

His absence didn’t prevent the Splash from taking a season-high 47 shots.

Nor did it prevent the Splash from losing, 7-4, to the Pride in front of 5,599 at Memorial Coliseum. It was the Splash’s third loss in five games.

Ervine, whom Coach George Fernandez said would play against Portland, stayed home after coming to a mutual agreement with his coach late Saturday night.

“Based on what transpired [being benched] the previous two games,” Ervine said late Sunday, “we felt the best thing to do was to take a couple of days and evaluate what’s taken place and have everything cleared up so that Wednesday [against Mexico], everything will be put behind us, we can start fresh and get our team back together.”

Defender Paul McDonnell also did not play for the third straight game.

Fernandez has said the reason for benching Ervine was a “coach’s decision,” although he had complained earlier about players trying to do too much and not concentrating enough on team play.

Despite defeating Sacramento--the Continental Indoor Soccer League’s last unbeaten team--the Splash lost two of the three games Ervine missed.

In the most recent setback, the Splash trailed, 3-1, early in the third quarter when it got a goal from recently acquired Bernie Lilavois and two from Raffaele Ruotolo to take a 4-3 lead a minute into the fourth. But Portland’s Chris Scotti tied the score at 3:23, and 20 seconds later, Jeff Betts--the league’s scoring leader--began his run at a hat trick.