Gonzalez Shines Before Record Crowd

Charlie Gonzalez’s five-point night (4-1=5) helped the San Diego Sockers (18-4-0, 51, 2nd) rally with a five-goal fourth period for a rousing 10-7 victory over the rival Empire Strykers (11-10-1, 33, 7th) before a record Frontwave Arena soccer crowd of 4,638 (4,508, 12/14/24). The win keeps San Diego in second place and one point behind Chihuahua for the top seed in the MASL Playoffs.  

Gonzalez finished a Sockers’ counterattack with a tap-in goal at the back post off a cross-field pass from Sebastian Mendez at 8:39 of the opening period. Gonzalez has a point in 18 of his last 19 games. San Diego took a 1-0 lead into the second period.

Empire equalized at 0:26 on a Justin Stinson blast into the upper right corner. Gonzalez got his brace at 7:56 to give San Diego a 2-1 lead on a long-driving shot from just outside the yellow line that pierced the back of the net. Stinson matched Gonzalez’s feat only 45 seconds later with his second goal of the night on a rebound opportunity. The Strykers took their first lead of the contest at 11:02 on a Walter Diaz goal. Stinson tallied a hat-trick on a tremendous individual effort to beat three defenders inside the arc and then slotted home his shot at 13:17 for a 4-2 advantage.

Drew Ruggles got the second half off to a quick start with 56 seconds gone when Leo De Oliveira’s precision pass found Ruggles’ foot just outside the box for the one-touch marker. He now has a point in nine of his last 13 matches. De Oliveira has a point in seven of the last 10 games. Kraig Chiles notched his 501st Sockers career goal with a tap-in off a Luiz Morales helper at 6:18. The Captain, who is now only two away from 300 career MASL goals, has a goal in 11 of his last 12 matches. At 7:45, Ruggles added an assist to his total when he passed the ball to Gonzalez to secure his hat trick with a one-touch score. Empire took advantage of a bad bounce off the wall, which led to Diaz’s second unassisted goal of the game at 10:04. 

Strykers’ goalkeeper Brandon Gomez scored at 3:09 to extend their lead to 7-5. Robert Palmer assisted the score. Only 1:08 later, Keko Gontán’s power-play goal cut the deficit to 7-6. De Oliveira’s helper gave him two on the evening. Two-and-half minutes later Mendez put home a loose ball off a Gonzalez pass to even the score at 7-7. Empire’s attacking goalkeeper style of play came back to haunt them as Charlie stole the ball by the right-side boards at the yellow line and then buried his shot into the open net moments before keeper Brian Orozco could get back. San Diego then struck for their ninth and tenth goals to secure their 11th win at Frontwave Arena, Morales from De Oliveira and Luis Ortega scored with a Cesar Cerda helper.

Gonzalez, the Man Of The Match, earned his 300th career point on the fourth-quarter assist and ended the match with 301 points after his fourth goal. He stated, “It means a lot, when we went down and then we came up big, it’s nice to be able to help out the team.”

Xavier Snaer-Williams improved his record to 7-1-0 by making nine saves on 16 shots. He has won seven of the last eight he has played in and four of the last five he has started.

Sockers Head Coach Phil Salvagio on the team’s fourth-quarter adjustments, "We made a couple of changes focusing on making better runs into the offensive zone, and we decided as a team to cut their passes off before they entered the zone.” 

San Diego and Empire meet tomorrow in the series finale at Toyota Arena in Ontario, CA, 4:05pm kickoff. The Sockers will be back at Frontwave Arena to conclude the regular season against the Tacoma Stars on Sunday, March 30, 6:05pm for Fan Appreciation Night. Tickets are available at AXS.com, FrontwaveArena.com or SDSockers.com/tickets.