The San Diego Sockers closed out another amazing season with a 4-3 win over the Florida Tropics in game two of the Major Arena Soccer League finals on Sunday evening at Pechanga Arena San Diego to claim their second-straight Ron Newman Cup and 16th championship overall.
“I’m so proud of every player on this team,” said owner and head coach Phil Salvagio. “We battled all year long with a target on our backs, and in the end, we have back-to-back Ron Newman Cups.”
This is Salvagio’s sixth championship in his 13 seasons which is one short of Ron Newman who set the franchise record at the helm.
The Sockers found themselves in this position after a 6-3 victory in game one on May 2 at RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Fla.
San Diego drew first blood thanks to midfielder Brandon Escoto scoring 66 seconds into the game, which was followed up by another goal from Tavoy Morgan two minutes later.
Just when it looked like the Sockers were going to a runaway with the match, Florida cut the lead in half with 5:13 left in the first quarter and tied the game 47 seconds into the second quarter.
Escoto would come up big again for San Diego just over two minutes later giving the Sockers a 3-2 lead, which was the score entering halftime. The visiting team came out strong after the break to tie the game again with a quick score just 2:53 into the second half. The Sockers’ game-winner came courtesy of team captain and finals MVP Kraig Chiles who scored at the 6:19 mark of the third quarter.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Chiles. “It was a hard battle against a quality opponent in Florida, but we stuck together.”
Boris Pardo, who was recently named the MASL goalkeeper of the year award winner, had another standout performance making several big saves throughout the match and keeping Florida off the scoresheet for the final 23:41 of the game to preserve the one-goal victory for the Sockers.
“We knew we were just going to have to survive a flurry of shots to keep them at three,” said Pardo. “In the end, it was just defend-defend-defend to hold the lead, and we were able to do that.”
The team finished with a record of 23-0-1 winning the MASL Shields as the top team in the league along with their Sockers2 squad winning the MASL2 championship back in April. The San Diego Sockers will now move from Pechanga Arena San Diego to CaliFino Arena in Oceanside once the new stadium opens for next season.
Photo Courtesy: San Diego Sockers
