Ervine Backs Up His Words as Splash Wins
Dale Ervine sat in front of his cubicle before Saturday’s game against Portland when someone mentioned his team could be in first place after the game.
“We will be,” Ervine said.
Then Ervine, the Splash’s leading scorer, scored three goals and had a hand in his team’s first seven as Anaheim rolled to an 8-3 Continental Indoor Soccer League victory over the Pride in front of 6,072 at the Pond.
The Splash (5-3) is alone in first place, a game ahead of San Diego (4-4), which lost to Washington, 11-8.
The Splash plays San Diego on Thursday at the Sports Arena. Portland, also in the Western Division, is 3-5.
Ervine’s seven-point performance tied a team record set by Doug Neely (Aug. 19, 1995), but was four short of the CISL record set by Dallas’ Tatu.
Although Ervine got most of the points, he praised his teammates.
“It’s easy to overlook Bernie Lilavois playing midfield for us, or the four defenders who had to have big games [with Neely out of the lineup],” he said. “Those things are why we’re successful.
Lilavois, a forward, played midfield as Danny Barber was assigned to the second shift.
Both scored in the fourth quarter, as did midfielder Paul Agyeman, who was moved to Ervine’s unit.
It was his goal, 1 minute 42 seconds after Portland’s Chris Scotti made it, 5-3,, that took the momentum away from the Pride.
While Ervine was keeping his pregame promises, defender Paul McDonnell was breaking his.
McDonnell, pressed into more of a leadership role because of the absence of the more experienced Neely (playing for the U.S. national beach soccer team in Spain), said he expected to stay at home on defense.
Instead, McDonnell scored the Splash’s first two goals, the second on a breakaway.
They were his first goals since scoring twice in the season-opener.
“The chances came,” McDonnell said. “You can’t change your game that much.”
With McDonnell, John O’Brien, Ricky Rodriguez and Kenny Hesse (taking Neely’s place) working hard in front of him, Ruben Fernandez (14 saves) didn’t make his first save until 7:17 into the second quarter, when he stopped a shootout attempt by Jeff Betts.
The shootout came about after McDonnell’s intentional handball, which saved a goal.
It turned out to be a good play because the Splash, the league’s third-best penalty killing unit (78.6%), did just that.
“It was very important for us to start establishing a sense of how we’re going to play, especially at home,” Ervine said.
“This game, ending a four-game home stand, going into San Diego winning four of five, you can sense that the guys are gaining confidence in that as long as we play together, we’ll have opportunities to win regardless of where the game is played.”
