Splash Finds the Balance to Handle Sacramento

Paul Agyeman had just scored two goals and played, perhaps, his best game of the season--with stomach flu.

Bernie Lilavois had just scored the most bizarre goal of his career--a shot into the corner boards that caromed inside the far post.

And the Splash had just taken its offense to another level--getting points from 10 players--in an 8-4 victory over Sacramento Wednesday before 4,025 at the Pond.

The victory moved the Splash (4-3) into sole possession of second place in the Continental Indoor Soccer League’s Western Division and saddled Sacramento (4-4) with its third straight loss. The Splash hosts Portland on Saturday.

The victory was critical because the team will continue to play without its only true playmaker, Raffaele Ruotolo (strained lower back), for at least two weeks, and also because it will play its next two games without its best defender, Doug Neely, who has a commitment to play soccer in Europe.

“It is a little scary,” said Agyeman, who has been battling stomach flu the last two days. “We started off slow again [allowing an opponent to score first for the sixth time in seven games] and gave up the two early goals--and that was with Neely there.

“It seems like we’ve had new personnel every game. The next two games will be a character test.”

If the Splash’s third victory in four games showed anything, it was that it can play with the diversity needed to compensate for the loss of players of Ruotolo’s and Neely’s stature.

“That’s our team, right there,” said Lilavois, who scored nine seconds before halftime to give the Splash a two-goal cushion, 4-2, and answered Sacramento’s only second-half goal for a 5-3 lead. “That’s what [Coach] Ian Fulton and [General Manager] Don Ebert have tried to put together--a lethal offense. If teams can shut down [Dale] Ervine or [Danny] Barber, someone else will step up. Tonight, it showed.”

Ervine had two goals and an assist (a shot that bounced off Sam George for George’s only goal), and Barber scored once. John O’Brien (two), Ricky Rodriguez, Neely, P.J. Polowski and Mike Lynch (who scored his first professional point) had assists.

After spotting the Knights a 2-0 lead, it took Ervine’s goal at 9:01 of the first quarter to break down 1995 goalkeeper of the year Mike Dowler. Agyeman scored at 10:06, and George at 13:39.

Agyeman said the key goal was Lilavois’ with nine seconds left in the half.

Neely’s shot was wide of the box, but Lilavois went waist-high to blast home a short shot past Dowler.

Lilavois’ game-winning goal, for a 5-3 lead, was a strange carom past two defenders.

“That’s as weird of a goal as I’ve scored,” Lilavois said.