Splash’s Skid Not Stopping

Raffaele Ruotolo was the final player to leave the locker room Sunday, the bottom feeder in an unpleasant situation in which the team had only four towels to share after showering.

So maybe Ruotolo can be forgiven if his attitude wasn’t quite that of his teammates, whom he watched after the Splash’s 5-4 loss to Monterrey on Sunday. Ruotolo thought his teammates’ attitude was too accepting of their fate.

Ruotolo wasn’t upbeat for obvious reasons. The Splash lost its fourth game in a row for the first time since the franchise moved to Anaheim three seasons ago, this time in front of 5,204 at the Pond.

Ruotolo and his teammates had plenty of chances to score here or there that would have put an end to a stretch in which they have now lost six of their last eight.

But Ruotolo isn’t cool with the idea that losing is OK.

“You can always go out and say we played our hearts out but we lost,” said Ruotolo, who missed the last three games because of an injured toe. “We have to do whatever it takes to win the game. We keep coming back in here and [saying],’Yeah, we keep putting the effort in, but we lost.’ Let’s do something else to win the game. The season is getting shorter and shorter.”

The Splash dropped to 9-9 with 10 to play and remains in third place in the Western Division, 1 1/2 games behind first-place San Diego. The Splash plays Seattle (7-14) tonight at the Pond, then three games in four days on the road against division opponents.

If the playoffs began today, the Splash would share the final playoff spot with Detroit, the fifth-place team from the Eastern Division and a 6-5 overtime winner over the Splash two weeks ago.

This game was true to form in the Splash’s current spiral; in its last five losses, the team has had one second-half lead, and that was because it led at halftime against Houston before giving up seven consecutive goals.

Coach Ian Fulton said his team needed to go 5-3 during this current stretch of games to pull out the division title. That was three losses ago.

“We’ve been playing catch-up way too long,” said Bernie Lilavois, who scored twice. His second goal tied the score, 3-3, going into the fourth quarter. “It seems like we haven’t had a lead in a month. We needed that little extra step to get over the hump and we gave up a goal.”

Actually, the Splash gave up two goals. Jaime Perez scored 47 seconds into the fourth quarter, and Octavio Perez completed a hat trick at 5:10 after taking the ball from goalkeeper Ruben Fernandez and chipping in from the red line. Fernandez got the ball and while his teammates changed over, he had no one to pass to--so he tried to dribble.

Doug Neely scored 79 seconds later, but the Splash’s goal-scoring opportunities, like many earlier, came up short.

For example, Dale Ervine, trying to score the 400th goal of his career, was 0 for 6 shooting and twice hit the post or crossbar.

Another time, Sam George was in the wrong place a the wrong time, and blocked a sure goal by Splash defender Ricky Rodriguez.

“Today, we were unlucky,” said George, whose goal opening the second half tied the score, 2-2, after being down by two goals 6:11 into the first quarter. “If we play like we did tonight, we’ll win 90% of our games.”

Notes

The Splash expects to re-sign Armando Valdivia today for tonight’s game against Seattle. Valdivia, who was waived by the Splash earlier this season so it could obtain Antonio Farace and Mike Lynch, recently was waived by Seattle. . . . The Splash donated 3,000 tickets to the California Highway Patrol, with proceeds from the sale to benefit the family of slain CHP officer Don Burt, who was killed while on duty July 13. Burt’s wife, Kristen, is expecting their first child Sept. 25.