SOCCER / CISL PLAYOFFS : Splash’s Big Lead Turns Into a Loss

In one of its most shocking endings of the season, the Splash lost to Sacramento, 5-4, in Game 1 of the Continental Indoor Soccer League semifinals.

The Knights scored four fourth-quarter goals to steal a victory before 7,020 at Arco Arena.

The Splash, with a 4-1 lead, was 15 minutes away from returning to The Pond with a chance to clinch a spot in the CISL finals. Game 2 is noon Saturday.

The end was exacerbated by Raffaele Ruotolo, who missed an open net shot in the final 30 seconds.

“It wasn’t that easy, but 10 out of 10 times, he would put that in the back of the net,” Splash Coach George Fernandez said. “This time he didn’t. But it should never have gotten to that point.

“We were complacent. We got into that comfortable mode and stopped playing, and at times, we just panicked. We had a six-minute brain seizure.”

Actually, it was 6:12 from the time the Knights scored 54 seconds into the fourth quarter to the time Paul Hansen score the game-winner.

The Splash took a 4-1 lead on third-quarter goals by Armando Valdivia (at 38 seconds), Bernie Lilavois (his second, at 1:00), and former Knight Sean Bowers (a power-play goal at 14:12).

Then the roof caved in. Mark Thomas, Gerell Elliott, Iain Fraser and Hansen scored. The killer was Fraser’s. It came one second after the Splash killed a shootout and power play, and came as the result of Paul Wright’s errant shot deflecting off Fraser.

The Knights outshot the Splash, 15-6, in the fourth quarter, and 35-22 overall.