Sockers Keep Shield Hopes Alive
Stefan Mijatovic’s rebound goal 2:55 into golden goal overtime lifted the San Diego Sockers to a wild 11-10 overtime win over the Kansas City Comets, the Sockers’ third OT win in Kansas City this season. Mijatovic collected the rebound of a point-blank shot by Tavoy Morgan--who had a season-best four goals and two assists—and slammed home a half-volley from left wing, which deflected off Kansas City defender Guerrero Pino into the net, capping a three-goal unanswered rally to end the match.
The Sockers (15-6-2, 42 points) temporarily moved into first place in the Major Arena Soccer League standings table, and kept their dreams of winning the MASL Shield alive with the win. They did so in as dramatic a fashion as possible, stunning a crowd of 4,630 inside Cable Dahmer Arena that was hoping for the Comets (12-6-5, 39 points) to make their own Shield bid with two regulation wins this weekend. Instead, San Diego scored the final two goals of the fourth quarter, including Drew Ruggles’ equalizer at 14:02 with himself as the sixth attacker and the San Diego net empty. His goal came on captain Cesar Cerda’s fourth assist of the night, also putting him over 200 points in his MASL career. Cerda also assisted on Luiz Morales’ goal at 8:02 to draw San Diego back to 10-9. Chris Toth (6-1-1) came into the match at halftime and stopped 9-of-12 shots against to earn the win in goal.
The Comets had their annual Teddy Bear Toss in this match, with fans bringing teddy bears and stuffed animals to the arena to throw on the field after Kansas City’s first goal. It took less than two minutes for the teddys to be tossed, as the Comets’ David Stankovic pressured Sebastian Mendez into a turnover in the right attacking zone, and passed to Lucas Souza, who took one touch before lacing his shot past starting keeper Boris Pardo and into the left-side netting at 1:24 for a 1-0 lead.
With KC’s defense lining up to block four shots in the first ten minutes, offense was hard to come by in the early going for San Diego, but the Sockers found their way to the net thanks to a long-awaited player. Leonardo de Oliveira, who had missed eight straight matches due to a quad injury, returned to the lineup on Friday and got himself involved in the first quarter, working a give-and-go with Tavoy Morgan inside the crease. Leo fed a back-heel pass into Morgan, then ran off Tavoy’s right hip, accepting a return pass and firing home his seventh goal of the season at 11:40 for a 1-1 tie.
Tavoy wasn’t done, winning a loose ball along the bench wall and dribbling into the attacking zone, before taking two steps to his left and blasting a half-volley that deflected off a defender and past keeper Phillip Ejimadu for his twelfth goal of the season and a 2-1 lead at 13:23 of the first. Morgan began his monster night and increased his goals streak to five matches in a row. However, the Comets had the last statement of the opening quarter, as Chad Vandegriffe fed a ball down the right wall to Mikey Lenis, who spotted a wide-open Dominic Francis on left wing. Lenis’ pass was smashed home by Francis off the hand of Pardo for his eighteenth goal of the season with just 27 seconds left in the frame, at 14:33. The score was tied 2-2 after fifteen minutes, with Kansas City out-shooting San Diego 12-9.
The fast-paced offensive first half continued with three goals in the first 3:10 of the second quarter. Finding joy in the counter-attack, the Sockers pushed out of their defensive zone after an early blocked shot, with captain Cesar Cerda leading an outmanned rush up the middle of the floor. Cerda reached the top of the attack zone before sliding a rolling ball to his left to Jesus Pacheco, who blasted his ninth goal of the season into the top netting at 1:19 for a 3-2 San Diego lead. Undeterred, the Comets answered right back, with Leo Acosta sending Mikey Lenis down the middle, who bounced his shot in past the keeper at 2:17 for a 3-3 tie. Back came the Sockers, with Cerda driving to the mid-wall of the attack zone before selecting an open Morgan on the back post, who one-timed his second goal of the night at 3:10 for a 4-3 San Diego edge.
Suddenly, the field tilted toward the Sockers goal, as the Comets started pouring in one goal after another against Pardo and the San Diego defense. A blue card for too many men on the floor put the Sockers on the penalty kill, and the Comets converted their third straight power play against San Diego in the season series, with Nacho Flores scoring on a Rian Marques assist at 6:20 for a 4-4 tie. Twenty-six seconds later, the Comets bounced a wall pass into the crease that deflected off the leg of a San Diego defender to Zach Reget, who knocked home his 25th goal of the season from point-blank at 6:46 for a 5-4 lead. Sixteen seconds after that, Junior Kazeem beat Pardo from the wing at 7:02 for his first goal of the season, and Kansas City led 6-4. Three goals in 42 seconds for the Comets.
San Diego had a quick and temporary answer. Mitchell Cardenas bounced a wall pass to the left edge of the crease, and Jesus Pacheco had an initial shot saved but found his own rebound and poked home his second of the night and tenth of the season at 9:36, narrowing the lead to 6-5. Just over a minute later, the Comets had the goal right back, Lucas Souza earning his third point and second assist of the half on a feed to Marques for his 27th goal of the year at 10:54 and a 7-5 KC advantage. The Sockers allowed five goals in a quarter for the second time all season, set a season low-water mark for goals conceded in the first thirty minutes, and trailed 7-5 at the halftime buzzer.
The Sockers made the switch in net to Toth to begin the second half, and the move bore immediate dividends. Chris, working off back-to-back MASL Goalkeeper of the Week awards, picked up his second assist of the season when he sent a pass forward to Tavoy Morgan, who completed his hat trick with a lethal shot into the corner just 21 seconds into the third quarter, drawing San Diego to within a goal at 7-6. Toth then made three critical saves in short order, including a one-handed stop of an open Reget in the crease. With the wind in their sails, San Diego came back up the floor, with Sebastian Mendez giving Morgan the ball outside the zone. He juked, stepped to the left against his defender, and knocked in his fourth goal of the match and 15th of the season at 5:18 for a 7-7 tie.
The Sockers’ defensive issues weren’t going to go away with one substitution, however. Kansas City kept up the pressure, forcing San Diego into some intense work to get the ball out of their zone. The Sockers thought they had cleared their zone on a pass from Cerda to Drew Ruggles, but Lucas Souza stepped up at the yellow line and stole the ball from Ruggles, triggering a two-on-zero with Rian Marques on the back post. Toth thought he had the angle to intercept the crossing pass, but missed and stepped over the ball, which Marques knocked in on the far post for his second of the night, giving Kansas City the lead back 8-7 at 9:00 of the third quarter.
A night of errors for both defenses continued when the Comets made a slow and sloppy line change two minutes later, with three players leaving the field at the same time. Toth sent a pass up the left wall to Leo, who had options and picked out a wide-open Luiz Morales on the attacking right wing. Morales took one touch and then blasted the ball into the upper-V at 11:00 for his tenth goal of the season. The see-saw match was back to level terms at 8-8. The next mistake was San Diego’s, as Nacho Flores was left open on the left low block, forcing Cerda to trip him for a blue card penalty. For the fourth straight time, the Comets dissected the league-leading power play, with Marques pushing into the middle before rolling to an open Dominic Francis on the back post for a tap-in goal at 14:37, giving Kansas City a 9-8 lead going into the fourth quarter. The penalty was also Cerda’s seventh of the season, forcing the team captain into an automatic suspension for Sunday’s finale.
The fourth quarter began with the Comets’ tenth goal of the night, exposing a spread-out defense that saw the Sockers chasing the ball. Guerrero Pino drove into the high-left wing and found Christian Anderaos in the middle of the field, and as the defenders flowed toward him, he spotted Zach Reget alone on the low-right post. Reget left-footed the ball into the top netting for his second of the night and roared in exultation with two fists extended, as Kansas City extended to a 10-8 lead at 2:02. San Diego thought they drew one back at the midpoint of the quarter, but Leonardo de Oliveira’s shot hit the crossbar, goal line, and crossbar again, never crossing the line after video review. However, seconds later, Cerda moved back to center stage, dribbling to the right edge of the crease before shooting a ball that was blocked, spinning off to the left, where Luiz Morales ran on it and left-footed home his brace at 8:02, making it a 10-9 game. The goal was Morales’ 100th of his MASL career.
The Sockers placed relentless pressure on the Comets zone in the final minutes, with Toth leaving for a sixth attacker with 3:14 remaining. The opening two minutes of the extra man failed to bring a goal, though, and after a timeout Drew Ruggles came on, joining Cerda on the field. Responsible for late heroics in three straight matches now, Ruggles made his presence felt within seconds, accepting a pass on left wing from Cerda and stepping his laces through a perfectly-placed shot into the high-right corner at 14:02 for the dramatic equalizer at 10-10. The Comets, knowing that only two regulation wins would give them the MASL Shield, pulled their keeper Phillip Ejimadu (17/28 saves) for a sixth attacker in the final minute, but the Sockers kept the ball away and even had a look at a regulation win of their own on a wide shot against the keeper-less defense. The golden goal heroics would follow, guaranteeing that the race for the MASL Shield would continue to the season’s final day.
Four teams remain alive for first place and the MASL Shield going into the final day. San Diego knows that a regulation win against Kansas City on Sunday would get them to 45 standings points, a number no other MASL club can match. An overtime win would get them to 44 points, which could be matched by St. Louis, who sit on 41 points with one match remaining at Empire on Sunday afternoon, but would hold the tiebreaker with 11 regulation wins if they beat the Strykers without going to overtime. Milwaukee and Baltimore are both at 40 points with one (winnable home) match remaining against Utica and Tacoma, respectively, and are each expected to get to 43 points. The Sockers could still finish anywhere from first to fifth in the standings, as a clean loss to the Comets on Sunday would put Kansas City at 42 points with the tiebreaker of 11 regulation wins.
With everything to play for, San Diego and Kansas City will fly back to California on Saturday and lock boots for a fifth and final time on Sunday afternoon at Frontwave Arena, a 3:00pm PDT kickoff. Prior to the match, the Sockers will honor retiring long-time leading scorer Kraig Chiles, who is missing the end of the season with a knee injury, and the first 1,500 fans will receive a Chiles replica jersey. Tickets are available for the momentous match at frontwavearena.com or sdsockers.com.
