Chiles, Costa & Pardo Lead Sockers 7-4
Kraig Chiles scored a hat trick and Boris Pardo made 13 saves to help the San Diego Sockers (6-0-1, 17) defeat the Kansas City Comets (5-1-2, 17) 7-4 before 2,105 supporters at Frontwave Arena on Wednesday night. The Sockers, who are 5-0-0 at home and on a six-game winning streak, move into a four-way tie for second place in the MASL standings.
Costa, on a four-game point streak, opened the scoring at 7:30 of the first. Charlie Gonzalez played a ball across from the corner to Costa who fired it into the bottom left corner from long range. San Diego’s Boris Pardo and Kansas City’s Phillip Ejimadu made several key saves to keep the game at 1-0 at the end of the quarter.
Gonzalez, who took over the team scoring lead with 3-6=9), added a goal to his total on a free kick from outside the area, which deflected off a Comets defender and through the legs of Ejimadu to give San Diego a 2-0 advantage at 5:17 of the second. Shortly after the goal, Pardo made three outstanding saves on the flurry of offensive action by Kansas City to keep the clean sheet. The Sockers countered with their own attack, but Ejimadu came up big twice. Chiles tapped in Costa's cross-field pass at the backside of the goal past Ejumadu for a 3-0 lead. The Comets pulled within two with 1:25 remaining in the half on a long power shot by Chad Vandegriffe to the top center of the goal. Kansas City’s leading scorer, Rian Marques, had the assist.
Both teams kept up the sustained pressure on the goalkeepers throughout the third period and they were up to the task. Each making big saves to keep the score at 3-1 until the 10:35 mark when Marquis collected a Vandegriffe pass at the side of the area and quickly turned with a shot into the back of the net. Kansas City found the equalizer two minutes later on a Lesia Thetsane marker from inside the arc off a pass from Ramone Palmer. San Diego took the lead at 14:09 when Ejimadu grabbed Keko Gontan on a breakaway for a shootout. On the attempt, Chiles slowly dribbled to the top of arc and blasted a shot past backup goalkeeper Nicolau Neto, who was in for Ejimadu while he served his penalty.
Five minutes into the final period, Ejimadu had his second penalty leading to another Chiles shootout attempt, which was saved this time by Neto. However, Chiles atoned for the miss just four seconds after the power-play was over for his hat trick. Costa provided the helper at 7:18. The Comets would not go quietly as Junior Kazeem scored on an assist from Ignacio Flores with 6:19 left in the contest. San Diego would regain control only 14 seconds later when Sebastian Mendez finished a Tavoy Morgan pass for a two-goal lead. The Sockers took advantage of the Comets going to the sixth attacker to tally the final goal by Christian Gutierrez at 12:22.
Pardo (5-0-1) finished with 13 saves on 17 shots, while Ejimadu had 14 saves in a losing effort.
San Diego will host the Texas Outlaws on Friday, January 17, 7:35pm at Frontwave Arena for Military Appreciation Night. A Sockers Military Scarf presented by Kaiser Permanente will be the free giveaway item, while supplies last. $10 Craft Beers will also be available. Tickets are available at AXS.com, SDSockers.com, or FrontwaveArena.com.