Splash Missing Key Ingredients : Indoor soccer: Co-captain is out of action and the team has little intensity in 7-3 loss to Monterrey.

At this point a year ago, the Splash were 14-5 and a scant two victories away from clinching a playoff berth.

But the Splash isn’t living in the past. It’s fighting for its playoff life.

And facing Monterrey, with more victories than any team in the Continental Indoor Soccer League, the Splash fell a little deeper into a hole.

La Raza got five first-half goals--including four in a row--and scored a 7-3 victory over the Splash in front of an announced crowd of 7,776 at The Pond.

Splash Coach George Fernandez was at a loss to explain his team’s play.

“We’re very inconsistent--I can’t explain it,” he said. “You can only tell them the same thing over and over so many times. They’re probably sick of hearing me.

“You can throw things, talk nicely, encourage them, rip them--I’ve pretty much done it all. You can only do so much.

One possible reason for the Splash’s diminished intensity was the loss of co-captain Denis Hamlett, which allowed Monterrey to play a very physical game.

Hamlett missed the game because he had reached 20 penalty minutes, but he should be in the back line Sunday when the Splash plays host to San Jose (9-9).

“[Hamlett] gives us that toughness, that desire that says, ‘We’re not going to let these guys come to our house and do what they did,’ ” Fernandez said.

The Splash fell into third place in the Southern Division behind Mexico (10-8), which scored an 8-4 victory over first-place San Diego (12-5).

The home team was always a step slow, a step fast or a step out of position.

And that, apparently, is the difference between being Monterrey (17-4) and the Splash (10-9).

“I think we’re as good or better than they are, but sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way,” Splash goalkeeper Ruben Fernandez (12 saves) said. “We beat Houston our last game and made 11 of our 19 shots; today, it wasn’t our day.”

Said Coach Fernandez: “We killed ourselves--it had nothing to do with Monterrey and everything to do with us. We put ourselves in a hole and we weren’t able to get out of it.”

Jose Vasquez tied the score with his 13th goal, but La Raza scored four consecutive goals before Bernie Lilavois finally broke the drought with a 45-footer from the side boards. It was 5-2 at halftime, the 14th time this season the Splash has scored two goals or fewer in the first half.

The teams traded goals in the third quarter with Sean Bowers scoring his ninth goal off an assist by Raffaele Ruotolo, his team-high 20th.

The Splash is 1-1 on its six-game home stand--one it cannot afford to waste with only nine games remaining.

Despite the loss, the Splash coach likes his team as it heads into the stretch run.

“They’re starting to get their identity; we’re well-rounded, we’re playing as a team--we’re starting to jell,” he said. “I think everyone feels comfortable with everybody now.

“It [hasn’t] gone our way, but I feel it will turn, the players feel it will turn, but I think they’re waiting for it to turn instead of making it turn.”

Raul Salas was brilliant in goal for Monterrey, adding 14 saves to his 242 total--second-best in the league.

Although Monterrey led the league in fouls, it didn’t pay off for the Splash, which had two power-play opportunities and failed to score on both, including one with a sixth attacker.