Toth Takes Sidekicks Down a Goal or 2; Sockers Win

DALLAS — When Sockers goalie Zoltan Toth sat down for his morning coffee Saturday, he trembled at what he read in the newspaper. The Sockers’ opponent Saturday night--the Dallas Sidekicks--had put on an 8-goal show in running the Wichita Wings out of Dallas Friday.

Toth’s fears proved unnecessary. His 17 saves helped the Sockers shut down Dallas, 2-1, before 10,885 at Reunion Arena.

“I looked at those eight goals, remembered that Tatu was back, and I started shaking,” Toth said. “I talked to Jean (former Socker Willrich) and Erik Rasmussen (both with Wichita) about Dallas, and they said I’d better be ready. I played scared all night, and I think that was good.”

Toth preserved the Sockers’ victory with two saves on Tatu bullets and another diving snare of Wes McLeod’s bouncing shot in the final two minutes.

“I thought Tatu’s second shot was in,” said Toth, the MISL leader with a 2.94 goals against average last season. “I looked around for (the ball) and it was in my hands. (Tatu) hit another shot that bounced off the post. We were lucky to hold them to one goal, but it’s something our defense should be very proud of.”

Dallas went to a sixth-attacker, Kevin Smith, with 2:56 remaining, but shots by Richard Chinapoo and McLeod sailed wide, and defender George Fernandez tied up Tatu in the left corner as time ran out. Dallas outshot the Sockers, 13-3, during the final 15 minutes.

“It wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you that,” Sockers Coach Ron Newman said. “Dallas was scrappy as usual, and I didn’t relax until the final horn went off.

“We were forced to play great defense down the stretch because we didn’t take advantage of our scoring opportunities. But fortunately, Zoltan and the boys came through.”

The defending champion Sockers (2-2) won their first road game of the season. The Sidekicks fell to 3-3. The Sockers won for the 13th time in 16 overall meetings, including 6 of 8 at Reunion Arena.

The Sockers took a 1-0 halftime lead on Kevin Crow’s second-quarter goal. Dallas goalie Joe Papaleo deflected Poli Garcia’s shot, but Crow took the crossbar carom and headed it into an open net.

Papaleo kept Dallas close with 23 saves, including a hectic 2-minute span in the third quarter in which he literally grabbed the ball off Crow’s foot, then made point-blank saves of shots by Garcia, Brian Quinn and Paul Dougherty.

“Joe played great,” Crow said. “We played good enough to score four or five goals.”

The Sockers’ lead grew to 2-0 early in the third when Gus Mokalis scored on a left-footer from 10 feet. Mokalis was the wide-open recipient of Dougherty’s corner kick, which took a kind bounce off Alan Willey’s heel in the penalty box.

Dallas, which lost for the second time this season on the second end of back-to-back games, pulled within one on Mark Karpun’s power-play goal with 8:33 remaining in the third. But the Sockers, coming off 8 days rest, held off Dallas’ last-minute surge.

“We feel for them coming off a tough game the night before, but every team has to play in that situation,” Crow said. “We knew they were tired, and we pressured them.”