Dallas Dominates Splash, 14-9

When Ian Fulton was hired as the Splash coach, he said his team would score a lot, have a more attacking offense, make the game exciting and put fans in the seats. And if his team gave up a few more goals, so be it.

But Friday night’s performance was ridiculous. The Splash scored nine goals--and lost.

It gave up a franchise-worst 14 goals in a humbling 14-9 loss to Dallas in both teams’ Continental Indoor Soccer League opener.

That’s more goals than the team gave up in one game its first season, as the Los Angeles United, when it went 6-22.

The Splash had the league’s best goalkeeper last year, Ruben Fernandez, who gave up a league-low 5.23 goals per game. But by the end Friday, Fernandez was picking up a yellow card and screaming for help.

On top of that, new general partner Gary Sparks said earlier in the week the game would draw “at least 10,000” fans. There were 6,525, which went unannounced.

The Splash, with its new ownership group, new general manager, new coach, new logo and new-look dance team, couldn’t have looked any worse.

“Even the most pessimistic guy wouldn’t have thought we would have done what we did,” Fernandez said. “We’re all to be blamed for it. We’re a good team, but we gave them too much space, let them dictate and we paid the price.”

Three times after the Splash scored, its defense gave up a matching goal within two minutes. That was the same fault it had last season when it won the division title with a 17-11 record.

Worse, five times Dallas scored twice in a two-minute span. In all, 15 goals were scored within two minutes of a previous goal.

“It was a combination of us not playing very good defense and them getting lucky at times,” defender John O’Brien said. “There was a five-minute span when they had five shots and five goals.”

And not all of them were clean goals. Three went off Splash defensive players.

The Splash had a 4-1 lead in the second quarter after goals by Raffaele Ruotolo, two by Doug Neely and one by Paul McDonnell. And Dale Ervine, making his return to the Pond after being traded at midseason last year, matched two Dallas goals quickly--within two minutes--for a 6-4 lead. Ervine surpassed the 600-point mark in his career.

But Dallas scored nine of the next 10, including seven in a row, for a 13-7 lead.

Bernie Lilavois,ended an 11-minute Splash drought with a goal at 7:16, and Danny Barber of Garden Grove, making his return to Orange County after a successful college and CISL career in Las Vegas, scored his first Splash goal 43 seconds later.

Tatu, who should surpass Steve Zungul as indoor soccer’s all-time leading scorer this season, had six points. He needs 40 to catch Zungul, who has 1,253.

Tatu, Terry Woodberry, and Nick Stavrou each had hat tricks for the Sidekicks.

“Bottom line, I am not very happy about this and want to apologize to the fans,” Fulton said.