San Diego Sockers Rocky Road
San Diego Sockers – former longtime champions of the indoor arena — have had a rough season, keeping fans on the edge of their seats. Tonight was a heartbreaker with a close game ending in disappointment as rival Tacoma scored with just one second left. A thrilling comeback was not in the cards for tonight — but Sockers fans look forward to the next match bringing home a win.
Michael Ramos broke San Diego hearts, firing home the match winner with 1.9 seconds left to lift Tacoma to an 8-7 victory over the San Diego Sockers at the ShoWare Center.
The Stars raced out to a 6-2 lead midway through the third quarter behind a goal and an assist in the first half from Adam West and two goals in succession from Steve Mohn to start the second.
Nick Perera scored his second of the game with four minutes left in the third and Luan Sales Olivera tapped home at the back post 40 seconds later to give the Sockers a lifeline heading into the fourth quarter.
A minute and forty seconds into the final frame and Tacoma were back in front by three. Corey Keitz was able to finish off a rebound following three straight saves by San Diego keeper Chris Toth. Despite Toth’s heroics the Sockers defense was unable to clear and Keitz made the extra opportunities count.
The Sockers showed their resilience as Enrique Tovar scored his second of the game with 9:09 remaining. Taking a short pass from a Miguel “Chiky” Luna corner, Tovar smashed the ball high beyond Danny Waltman in the Stars’ net.
Less then two minutes later and the Sockers were back within one as Jeff Hughes unleashed a thunderous drive from the right side that cannoned in off the underside of the crossbar.
San Diego continued to pour forward and a sweeping move saw a cross deflect through the goal mouth to the back post where Luna was on hand to guide in the equalizer.
The Sockers looked to be on the verge conjuring up another famous comeback victory, but with 21 seconds left Eddie Velez was whistled for tripping a Stars attacker and out came the only blue card of the game.
That led to a restart just to the left of Toth’s goal. The initial set-piece was cleared by Enrique Tovar, but only as far as Ramos in midfield. The Spokane native brought the ball up the right wing uncontested and unleashed a corker that nestled just inside Toth’s far post with 1.9 seconds showing on the clock to snap the Sockers four-game winning streak and keep the Stars firmly in the playoff hunt.
