Sockers Power Past Stars 8-5

Tacoma took advantage of a Gabriel Costa penalty and converted the power play with a score by Felipe Souza at 6:27 of the opening period. Souza’s shot after the pass from Michael Ramos dribbled slowly into the goal. Boris Pardo’s outlet pass off the boards found Keko Gontán at the top of the arc, and after making a slick move to create space, he slid his shot underneath two defenders and goalkeeper Chris Toth to equalize the match at 12:06. The quarter ended deadlocked at 1-1.

The Stars went ahead 2-1 on a full-field counter-attack marker by Willie Spurr at 1:05. Pardo saved the initial shot, but Spurr muscled his way along the end boards to rebound to put it in. Toth was called for a handball outside the area, leading to Sockers’ shootout attempt at 7:58. Kraig Chiles calmly slotted the shot down the middle past replacement goalkeeper Donald Motch to level the contest at 2-2. Chiles is now 2-of-3 on shootouts and has an eight-game goal and point streak. At 9:44, Gontán tallied his brace on a blast from the yellow line that deflected off a Stars player past Toth to give San Diego its first lead, 3-2. He collected another outlet pass from Pardo before running through the midfield to set up his shot. Two minutes later, a give-and-go between the team’s top two scorers extended the advantage to 4-2. Charlie Gonzalez passed the ball to Tavoy Morgan on the left wing for a shot that bounced off the end wall to Gonzlaez, who tapped it home from inside the box. He now has a point in 13 of his last 14 matches, while Morgan has a 14-game point streak.

Two minutes into the second half, San Diego’s sloppy play in front of Pardo led to a Khai Brisco chip-in marker to cut the deficit to 4-3. Alessandro Canale was awarded the assist as his shot led to the Brisco header. The Sockers established their two-goal margin on Gonzalez’s second goal of the game. The play started with a long ball by Costa from the defensive zone to Gonzalez on the right wing. After a short dribble, his shot traveled to the far post and in. With the assist, Costa now has a point in 11 of his last 14 games. Another counter-attack marker put San Diego up 6-3 as Drew Ruggles’ had an individual walla-scora goal. Costa sent a long ball to Cardenas, who found Ruggles at the yellow line. He then passed the ball off the end wall to himself and put a drive past Toth. Ruggles has a point in five of the last eight matches. 

With under eight minutes left in the game, Ramos’ low shot from the right wing seemed to fool the defense and landed in the far side netting to bring the Stars to within two at 6-4. With the sixth-attacker on for Tacoma, San Diego got two more scores. The first was a tic-tac-toe-goal by Morgan. Cesar Cerda passed to Ben Ramin, who gave Morgan an easy chance for the goal inside the area. Gonzalez followed that goal with his hat trick score on a long shot from the defensive zone into the empty goal. Christian Gutierrez provided the helper. Ramos would conclude the scoring with one second left on his second tally of the night. 

Pardo earned his tenth victory by making 17 saves on 22 shots. 

The Sockers return to Frontwave Arena on Wednesday, March 5, 7:35pm for the next installment of the I-15 SoCal Derby against the Empire Strykers. Individual, group, mini-plan, and $75 Family Four-Pack tickets are available at AXS.com, SDSockers.com, or FrontwaveArena.com.