Splash Wins An Ugly One at Home

ANAHEIM — One thing that could be counted on this season was the Splash playing well at home.

Then came Saturday, and still it won.

The Splash stole one against the Indiana Twisters, scoring three goals in the final 2 minutes 13 seconds to win, 8-6, in a Continental Indoor Soccer League game in front of an announced crowd of 7,023.

It was a contentious game, with players engaging in at least three shoving matches before the final buzzer and one after as Splash captain Doug Neely squared off with Carlos Farias (two goals, one assist), who previously played for the Orange County Zodiac.

Neely had four assists to four different players as the Splash overcame a three-goal deficit at halftime.

“We were discouraged at halftime,” said Bernie Lilavois, who had his third three-goal game of the season and was in the middle of most of the emotional confrontations. “We were frustrated. We wanted to jump on them early and we were down, 3-0.”

It didn’t seem to get much better after Ricky Rodriguez and Paul Agyeman scored their first goals of the year because the Splash trailed, 5-2, on Mariano Bollella’s goal with less than a minute left in the third quarter. But player/coach Dale Ervine scored 12 seconds later.

Suddenly, it was a game again. Lilavois scored three fourth-quater goals, including two in the first 3:35 of the fourth quarter to tie the score, 5-5.

After Pato scored Indiana’s second power-play goal for a 6-5 lead, Agyeman scored a sixth-attacker goal at 12:47, Lilavois scored the game-winner at 13:18, and Danny Barber scored against Indiana’s sixth attacker at 14:06.

“We’re in the middle of a grueling stretch where we’re playing four games in [eight] days and we have to meet at 4:30 a.m. to catch a plane for Portland [today],” Ervine said. “At this point, this was the most important victory of the season.”

No home game this season provided fewer highlights than the first half of this one. The pressure that Ervine had hoped to apply to the Twisters (11-8) was instead directed at the Splash (9-8). The Twisters were consistently a step quicker as they grabbed the lead.

The Splash was dealt a blow 1:46 into the game when midfielder Armando Valdivia took a knee in the head and had to leave. He will miss tonight’s game at Portland. The Splash, which had converted four of its last six power-play chances, failed without getting one good scoring opportunity.

Indiana outshot the Splash, 14-9, in the first half, and got goals from Carlos Farias, Mirko Castillo and Carlos Zavala. Castillo’s goal came on a power play.