Morgan's OT Goal Completes Comeback
Tavoy Morgan netted a golden goal 4:40 into sudden-death overtime, as the San Diego Sockers capped off a wild comeback and a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Ambush. The Sockers (14-6-2, 40 points) trailed 4-1 forty minutes into the match, then scored the final four goals unanswered to secure the victory, and a three-way share of first place in the Major Arena Soccer League standings table.
“It feels good to get the win,” said Morgan, who has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past two matches, “We wanted to get all three points, but we’re going to take it and move forward, and try to win our last two games.”
Tavoy’s match-winner came on a determined run, a hard-nosed finish, and a healthy dose of good fortune. Drew Ruggles (two goals, assist) sent a restart pass down into the left corner, but the ball hit a seam, and instead of coming to the near post, it squirted through to the far post, where Morgan slid to poke home the golden goal. The Sockers improved to 4-2 in overtime this season.
The MASL heads into its final weekend of competition next week with almost half the league tied for first place. San Diego, Baltimore, and Milwaukee all stand on 40 points, with Kansas City Comets and St. Louis (12-5-5) two behind at 38 points. The Sockers, Comets, and Ambush each have two matches remaining, while Baltimore and Milwaukee have one match remaining each. San Diego and Kansas City will play each other twice, on Friday in Kansas City and Sunday in Oceanside.
The Sockers comeback was charged by team captain and defender Cesar Cerda, who contributed two assists but regularly threw his body into the action, helping drive a squad that was severely lacking in offensive output with three top midfielders and all-time scorer Kraig Chiles out due to injury. His run into the right corner and centering pass for Morgan’s first goal at 6:49 of the third quarter initiated the comeback. While he was not credited with any official blocked shots, Cerda regularly interrupted the runs of top St. Louis scorer Daniel Torrealba, who was held pointless on the night.
The hero’s mantle then switched over to another attack-minded defender, Drew Ruggles. A talented playmaker and scorer who has had his ups and downs over the course of the season, Ruggles stepped up when offense was needed the most, finishing two different wall passes in the fourth quarter from Nick Perera (goal, two assists) to draw the Sockers even. The first, at 4:40, narrowed the score to 4-3. The second, at 9:41, brought a Frontwave Arena crowd of 3,593 to its feet as Ruggles netted his seventh goal of the season.
“With us being down late into the game, the idea was to try and get into spots that make things happen,” said Ruggles, “Picking and choosing the right moments, and it turned out to be the right moment to finish and score two goals. That’s what the team needed, and if it wasn’t me, it was going to be someone else.”
Goalkeeper Chris Toth did his part as the final line of the defense, stopping 14-of-18 shots (.778 SV%) and regularly bailing his club out on counter-attacks and outmanned rushes. The five-time MASL Goalkeeper of the Year improved to 5-1-1 on an injury-shortened season, with a 3.50 goals-against average (GAA) and .781 save percentage (SV%), numbers that would lead the league if Toth had a qualifying number of minutes played. A broken finger suffered during practice in the holiday break kept Toth out of the net for all of January and most of February.
In an eerily similar start to last Sunday’s loss to Kansas City, the Sockers conceded quickly and early, and on a one-on-one defensive mistake. Defender Luis “Peewee” Ortega found himself in a one-v-one situation in front of the bench wall against St. Louis’ Ozzy Santana, with no outlet or support across from him. Santana jammed in his foot and stole the ball from Peewee, turning in on goal with no defenders between him and the net. Santana slotted a true shot into the high netting at 2:42 for his fifth goal of the season and a 1-0 Ambush lead.
The Sockers equalized quickly themselves, as Cesar Cerda bent a wall pass out of the corner and in front of the net, where Nick Perera was making a lateral run and deflected the ball into the net at 3:48 for his team-leading 18th goal of the season, tying the match 1-1. San Diego then went on the power play after the Ambush’s top defender Robert Williamson was shown a blue card for getting an elbow up on Peewee at 9:26, but failed to convert. The Sockers later defended a St. Louis power play for too many men on the floor, and the first quarter ended deadlocked at one.
While San Diego put ten shots on net to St. Louis’ five in the second quarter, the Ambush found room to roam on the counter-attack, regularly putting the Sockers in hot water. On one such crash down the floor, Mario Falsone banged a ball off the goal wall that hit Nick Perera, who was tracking back on defense, and caromed into the net for an own goal. The Ambush took a 2-1 lead at 8:30, then doubled it at 12:58 after a second consecutive set piece. A top-arc shot was guarded, but a handball was ruled on San Diego defender Stefan Mijatovic, and the ensuing restart was guided by Ozzy Santana to the back post, where big defender Christian Briggs was waiting for the tap-in score and a 3-1 lead.
The third quarter started with an even stronger St. Louis press, hounding the Sockers into turnovers and counters. Toth stood strong to keep the lead from ballooning, although Falsone was able to knock in a walla-scora corner pass at 6:49 of the third to build the lead out to 4-1. San Diego blanked St. Louis for the final 28 minutes of the match to mount their comeback.
The final weekend of the regular season could see the Sockers clinch the MASL Supporters Shield with two regulation wins, or possibly two wins with one in overtime. One win will not suffice, and would push San Diego out of a top-two standings position, which confers a first-round bye in the Ron Newman Cup playoffs. The action begins with a 5:00pm PDT kick from Cable Dahmer Arena in Kansas City, and continues with Sunday’s season-ending 3:00pm PDT kick against the Comets at Frontwave Arena. Long-time and retiring Sockers captain Kraig Chiles will be honored prior to the match. Tickets are available at frontwavearena.com or sdsockers.com.