Sockers Show Force In 11-5 Win
Nick Perera scored a hat trick with an assist, and Sebastian Mendez had two goals and three assists, as the San Diego Sockers overpowered the Tacoma Stars 11-5 on Friday night at Frontwave Arena. A crowd of 3,364 saw the Sockers (11-4-2, 33 points) move into a first-place tie in the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) standings table. San Diego improved to 6-0-1 in their past seven matches, while Tacoma (7-9-1, 20 points) dropped its fifth in a row.
“We needed the result, and we needed the three points,” said Perera, “We want to get the first-round bye in the playoffs or home field advantage all the way.”
The Sockers dominated the second and fourth quarters, outscoring the Stars 8-0 in those two frames. Team captain Kraig Chiles had his best night of the season to date with a three-point game (goal, two assists), while defensive-minded Jose “Bebe” Gonzalez cosplayed as his higher-scoring brother Charlie on the night, starting in the midfield and setting a career-high with two goals and an assist. Chris Toth made his first start in net since December 12, after missing two months with a broken finger. The five-time Goalkeeper of the Year flashed his athleticism with a 13-for-18 save night, and added his first assist of the season offensively.
“It felt good,” said Toth of his first match action in over two months, “I have to thank the Sockers medical staff, Annemarie Alf from Olympus, and assistant coach Paul Wright for keeping me match fit. It was just a matter of getting back into seeing the angles and the ball.”
Tacoma came into the night making moves to try and pull out of a midseason tailspin, adding four-time MASL MVP Franck Tayou and his shot-blocking brother Uzi Tayou to the roster prior to the match. The league’s all-time leading scorer, Franck, netted his first goal of the year and the 434th of his career, while Uzi added an assist, blocked shot, three fouls, and constant chirping into the ears of San Diego’s forwards.
Starting the night without their top three playmaking midfielders (Leonardo de Oliveira and Charlie Gonzalez are out with injuries, Gabriel Costa is playing with Kings League-Brazil), San Diego began the night fitfully, unable to generate much in the way of a consistent first-quarter attack. Five minutes into the frame, Tacoma kicked a ball out of their zone up the middle that caromed off the leg of San Diego defender Drew Ruggles, the bounce going straight to the onrushing Yahir Romero. The Tacoma midfielder danced around Ruggles and into a breakaway down the middle, finishing a clean shot over Chris Toth’s right shoulder for a 1-0 lead at 5:01. Romero would strike again at 13:41, this time taking a slow, long lead pass from Jamael Cox, measuring up Ruggles one-on-one, and unleashing a wicked shot into the back-right upper corner of the net for a 2-0 lead.
It looked like a perfect quarter for Tacoma, but San Diego clawed an important goal back in the final minute. With the defense swirling around him on the left wing, Nick Perera moved to his right and sole-rolled a pass behind him to Sebastian Mendez, who was making an overlapping run. Mendez pinpointed a rolling shot low and inside the right post for his tenth goal of the season, and all of a sudden, a dominant 2-0 Stars quarter turned into 2-1 and gave San Diego the needed momentum heading forward.
The second quarter started well and kept getting better for the Sockers. Luiz Morales made a one-on-one run down the right wall of the attacking zone, stepping over the ball artistically twice before winging a wall-pass off the goal wall and into the crease, where Perera was waiting with his 6’3” frame to head the ball home, net his twelfth goal of the season, and draw the Sockers even 2-2 at the 2:48 mark. Ninety seconds later, San Diego captain Kraig Chiles controlled a pass outside the attacking zone on the left wing and sent an arcing pass forward to Mendez near the back post. Mendez turned on the ball in the air but got little on the shot; unfortunately for Tacoma keeper Luis Birrueta, his one-legged attempt to block was mis-aimed, and the ball rolled agonizingly slowly over the goal line at 4:19 for a third straight goal, and a 3-2 San Diego lead.
Next, two players who are used to defense-only contributions to the Sockers got the chance to team up on offense. Jose “Bebe” Gonzalez, who had exclusively played defensive runner or defender but got the chance to move into the midfield due to injuries, received a ball that was knocked away by little-used San Diego defender Moustapha “Momo” Gueye on the edge of the attacking zone. Gonzalez drifted forward with his eyes up, spotted Gueye heading to left wing, and fed him a rolling pass for a wicked left-footed shot inside the near post and into the top netting at 4:46. Gueye celebrated his first goal of the year with a dance, and the Sockers were ahead 4-2. San Diego capped a 4-0 quarter when they earned a power play after Franck Tayou was shown a blue card for pushing down Ruggles. The power play literally lasted less than a second, as Chiles measured the opening free kick, spotted a hole in the Stars’ defensive wall, and shot it through for his sixth goal of the season. The Sockers led 5-2 at the half.
Tacoma looked to turn the tables at the start of the second half in unusual fashion. A tripping blue card by the Stars’ Missa Lopez put the Sockers back on the power play three minutes into the third quarter. This time, instead of an instant shot and goal, San Diego tried to play a pass back to initiate their power play, only for it to miss the target and send the Stars’ Kyle Rivers off on a short-handed breakaway. Toth was able to push Rivers wide, and his shot was warded off the line by San Diego’s Luiz Morales, but the ball bounced back to Adrian Correa, who was chasing the play and knocked in the Sockers’ first short-handed concession of the season at 3:18, narrowing the lead to 5-3.
San Diego was still on the power play, however, and they would soon capitalize. Luiz Morales picked up a corner pass at a tight angle from Mendez and slotted his eighth goal of the season over the hands of Birrueta at 4:28, restoring the three-goal lead at 6-3. Nick Perera’s second goal of the night, on an assist from defender Mitchell Cardenas, pushed the advantage to 7-3 at 6:21. The Stars would answer back, though, as Franck Tayou used his potent right foot for his first goal of the season at 9:50, and 22 seconds later, Micheal Ramos danced from right-to-left and shot off-footed past Toth at 10:12. The Sockers lead was 7-5 after three quarters.
The fourth frame, however, was all San Diego. Perera finished his hat trick at 0:56 on a perfect set-piece pass across the goal from Chiles, who earned his second assist of the night. Working off a steal in the attacking zone, Mendez battled toward the net and muscled the ball to Jesus Pacheco on the goal mouth, who slid home his seventh goal of the season and the 100th point of his MASL career. When Tacoma emptied its net for a sixth attacker, “Bebe” sprang into action. Mimicking the long-distance acumen of the injured Leo, Gonzalez took a feed from Chris Toth across the defensive yellow line and then arced home a goal from three-quarters field, his first of the season at 8:36. In the final minute, Mendez again stole a ball between the benches and saw “Bebe” alone in the middle of the field. He was able to walk the ball into the net for his first career brace at 14:10.
The Sockers moved into a first-place tie with the St. Louis Ambush at 33 standings points, although they hold a match in hand on St. Louis, as well as pursuers Milwaukee and Kansas City. San Diego will spend that match-in-hand next week when they travel to Ontario to take on the Empire Strykers on Thursday night, before returning to Frontwave Arena on Sunday afternoon to host the Baltimore Blast for the only time this season. Tickets for Military Night are available by visiting frontwavearena.com or sdsockers.com.