San Diego Sockers Win North American Championship, 9-8
Published on March 14, 2010 under Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL) News Release
The Professional Arena Soccer League is stil relatively new, but the San Diego Sockers sang an old refrain tonight and picked up a new name.
In 1992 they won their 10th indoor championship in 11 years. From that point on they were known as the 10 time champion San Diego Sockers. After 17 years you can now call them the 11 time champions.
The Sockers took home the North American Championship with a 9-8 win over La Raza de Guadalajara, the Mexican futbol rapido champions.
Spilling over from yesterday's chaotic 6-5 win over Sidekicks del Estado de Mexico, La Raja came into today's game with a chip on their shoulder about the officiating. La Raza lost their composure early and it led to the Sockers building a 3-0 lead on two power play goals.
The game further threatened to destabilize when Aaron Susi was involved in a altercation in the corner halfway through the quarter. Referees Kia Depaneh and Fernando Pena set the tone and
From that point on the teams focused on the game, but the Sockers built a 7-2 lead by halftime.
In the second half, La Raza began to chip away. Horacio Alvarez and Rodrigo Flores scored to cut it to 7-4.
Kraig Chiles cemented his reputation as one of the great finishers in the game by completing a second straight hat trick to give the Sockers an 8-4 lead.
Undeterred, La Raza continued to fight and rival chants for Mexico and the Sockers vied to overpower each other.
Quintin Vazquez and Andony Hernandez cut the lead to 8-6, but Anthony Medina answered back nine seconds after Hernandez's goal to push the lead back to 9-6.
The crowd built to a crescendo as Flores and Vazquez scored again to make it a one goal game with 7:42 still to play.
From there the Sockers defense, captained by Riley Swift, left La Raza scratching their heads. Swift, who made 20 saves, was named North American Championships MVP.
La Raza went to the sixth attacker and after losing possession, Eduardo Arevaldo had no choice but to commit a tripping penalty to stop a Sockers empty net goal. La Raza stayed in the sixth attacker formation even though they played the last 36 seconds shorthanded.
As the Sockers made their last defensive clear, the clock clicked down and at the final horn the Sockers rowdy 7th Man section stormed the field as did hundreds of joyous Sockers fans. The fans celebrated with the team and PASL-Pro Commissioner Kevin Milliken presented the trophy to Phil Salvagio as champagne sprayed everyone on the field and players drank from the cup.
Aaron Susi is the PASL-Pro's first two-time champion as he won last year with the Stockton Cougars. For veterans like Paul Wright and Sean Bowers, who both played on the 1992 championship Sockers team, it was icing on the cake of brilliant careers. For others it was a first time accomplishment.
It also brought back lots of memories for the Sockers legends who attended the game including Juli Veee, Zoltan Toth, Erich Geyer and George Katakalidis. The torch how now been passed to the new generation of Sockers.
San Diego will have a chance to make it a double when they travel to Louisville on April 10 for the final of the US Open Arena Soccer Championships.
Professional Arena Soccer League Stories from March 14, 2010
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