Unbeaten Lazers Score Twice in Late Going to Down Sockers, 5-4

SAN DIEGO —  Consecutive Socker sellouts at the San Diego Sports Arena are unlikely, but then two San Diego losses in three days to the Los Angeles Lazers are even more unlikely.

Guess what.

Both occurred Saturday night.

Playing in front of a youth soccer night sellout crowd of 12,884, the Sockers could only watch as the Lazers scored twice in the final eight minutes to win, 5-4.

With 2:02 to play, Lazer forward Zizinho blasted a 25-foot shot into the far corner of the net for his first goal as a Lazer.

Zizinho ran on the field on a line change and received a strong outlet pass from goalkeeper David Brcic, who recognized that the Sockers were also in the midst of a line change.

“Brcic saw it and Zizinho made an unbelievable shot,” said Lazer Coach Peter Wall.

Los Angeles had tied the game at 4-4 when Lazer defender Gus Mokalis hit a liner from the top of the circle with 7:20 remaining.

On Thursday night at the Forum, the Lazers beat the Sockers, 4-3, in sudden-death overtime. Overall, the five-time indoor champion Sockers have a 11-5 edge and 6-2 home advantage against the Lazers.

“After the game in Los Angeles,” said Wall, “we came out and we knew we could take the game to them and score some goals.”

In Saturday night’s extremely physical game, in which 10 penalties were served, the game was tied at 2 at halftime and the Sockers led 4-3 after three quarters.

San Diego outshot the Lazers 34-18 and seemed to continually be on the verge of breaking the game wide open.

But . . .

“Everything they shot went in the goal,” said Socker Coach Ron Newman. “They were scoring from miles out. Everything we hit seemed to just miss. But at the same time, they fought like tigers. You have to give a lot of credit to them.”

Branko Segota, Juli Veee, Hugo Perez and Ade Coker scored for the Sockers (2-2). Willie Molano (six goals this season), Poli Garcia, Erhardt Kapp, Mokalis and Zizinho scored for the Lazers.

Socker goalkeeper Jim Gorsek made six saves on 18 shots, while Brcic made 14 saves on 34 shots.

“Brcic was brilliant,” Wall said. “You need a goalkeeper to keep you in the game.”

That’s exactly what Brcic did after the Sockers took a 3-2 lead on a goal by Perez early in the third quarter and a 4-3 lead on a tap-in by Coker with 10 seconds to play in the third quarter.