SOCKERS TOP STARS 5-4 FOR SECOND STRAIGHT WIN

Boris Pardo made 11 saves on 15 shots, and Luiz Morales added two more goals to his torrid stat totals in a 5-4 Sockers (2-1-0, 5) win over the visiting Tacoma Stars at Frontwave Arena on Friday evening. San Diego is now 2-0 in their new Oceanside home.

The Stars (1-2-1, 4), who were playing on back-to-back nights, opened the scoring in the first period on a goal by Nick Perera. He collected a long pass from goalkeeper Chris Toth, then spun the defender and slotted home his shot into the bottom corner. The remainder of the quarter was evenly played with solid scoring chances for both teams.

It looked like Tacoma might beat the Sockers again early in the season as Perera scored his brace with a volley off a perfect pass from Stefan Mijatovic at 2:27 of the second stanza. San Diego would not counter until eight minutes later on a Morales blast to the left of Toth after receiving a touch pass from Charlie Gonzalez. However, it only took Tacoma one minute to respond with a goal by Michael Ramos. The teams entered intermission with the Stars leading 3-1.

The second half would be an entirely different story for San Diego’s offense. Only 28 seconds after the kickoff, Luis Ortega played a ball across to Felipe Gonzalez who bent the ball past Toth and into the net to begin a string of four consecutive Sockers goals. San Diego evened the game, when Kiko Gontan made a crucial block which led to a 2v1 counter-attack with Morales who would eventually walk the ball into the goal for his second of the match. 

The Sockers added another goal at 4:33 of the final period to take the lead for the first time. Gontan curled a shot and scored off an assist from Ortega. At 10:44, Taylor Bond collected a long pass from Sebastian Mendez and calmly finished the play with a shot high right side of the goal for a 5-3 advantage. Tacoma would make it interesting with a sixth-attacker marker with 17 seconds remaining but failed to find the equalizer in the final moments.

San Diego concludes their three-game homestand on Saturday, December 28, 7:05pm when the rival Empire Strykers visit Frontwave Arena for the first time. Visit SDSockers.com, FrontwaveArena.com. or AXS.com for tickets and information.