FURY CLINCH #2 SEED WITH 6-4 WIN OVER SAN DIEGO

Goalkeeper Claysson de Lima made 20 saves and the Ontario Fury held off a late surge by the San Diego Sockers to clinch the second seed in the Major Arena Soccer League playoffs with a 6-4 victory.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Fury opened the scoring midway through the second, as Robert Palmer fed Juan Carlos Gonzalez for the game’s first goal. Gonzalez added to the Fury lead as he took a long lead pass from Maicon de Abreu and fired across the goal from a tight angle, hitting the post and bouncing it in past William Vanzela for a 2-0 lead.

Ontario widened its lead with 40 seconds remaining in the half, as Andy Reyes completed a 2-on-0 break with de Abreu, giving the Fury a 3-0 halftime lead.

Ontario moved to 4-0 late in the third quarter, as Justin Stinson took a pass from Franck Tayou made a move around a defender and fired it past Vanzela.

San Diego started chipping away at the lead, scoring twice in the first 3:27 of the fourth. Brandon Escoto got the Sockers on the board with a power play goal, then Leonardo de Oliveira settled the ball after a blocked shot and fired it past de Lima to cut Ontario’s lead in half.

Stinson and Tayou connected again, as Stinson put home a rebound of a Tayou shot to give Ontario a 5-3 lead.

Cesar Cerda scored twice for San Diego with an extra attacker, while de Abreu scored on the power play to close Ontario’s scoring.

San Diego will close out the weekend series with a game against Tacoma at 3 p.m. PDT at Toyota