Splash Needs Shootout to Defeat Sacramento

ANAHEIM — The Splash defense held an opponent to five goals or fewer for the third consecutive game on Friday.

It almost wasn’t enough.

The Splash needed a shootout to score a 5-4 victory over Sacramento and move past the Knights into second place in the Continental Indoor Soccer League’s Western Division.

The Splash (12-8), which scored the final three goals in the second half to force overtime, is three games behind Seattle. Sacramento is 12-9.

After a scoreless 10-minute overtime period, the Splash outscored the Knights, 4-2, in the shootout with goals by Doug Neely, Bernie Lilavois, Danny Barber and Dale Ervine.

But it was Ruben Fernandez who shouldered the responsibility of cutting down the Knights one-on-one. His save against Mark Thomas, Sacramento’s second-leading scorer, gave the Splash a 2-0 lead. When Ervine tapped the ball, then kicked into the upper left corner against Dan Madsen, the Knights couldn’t catch up.

The Splash escaped with a victory over a team that lost its sixth in a row.

“If we don’t win tonight, we negate almost everything we’ve done the last month,” said Lilavois, who failed to score for only his second game.

Fernandez, the league’s third-leading goalkeeper, had 13 saves. He is 3-0 lifetime in shootouts. Madsen, who had the league’s’ second-best goals-against average, had 18 saves.

The Splash is 2-0 in shootouts. It plays at Arizona tonight, completing a stretch during which it played eight games in 14 days. The Splash has won six of the first seven, including the last four.

The Splash positioned itself to make a legitimate run at the division title. Only three of its remaining eight games are against winning teams--two against Sacramento and one at home against Eastern Division leader Monterrey (13-7). Also, five games are at home, where the Splash has the league’s best record, 8-1.

“We’re playing as well as any Splash team at any time in any season,” Neely said, “but we can play better.”

The Splash’s seventh victory in eight games matches the best stretch the franchise has had since winning seven of its final eight games in 1995 to qualify for the playoffs and win a three-way tie for the division title.

The Splash dominated play in the first half, but had nothing to show for its efforts. Ervine scored 30 seconds after Sacramento’s Rudy Doliscat to tie the score at 6:28 in the first, but two goals by Chris McDonald--who had only one goal and one assist this season--put the Splash behind by two goals for the fifth time in six games.

And, for the fifth time, the Splash wiped out the deficit.

After Mark Thomas made it 4-1 for the Knights 4:14 into the third quarter, the Splash answered with goals by Mathew Davis at 5:24, Doug Neely at 10:23, and Ervine at 8:25 in the fourth quarter.

Ervine’s goal came on a corner kick across the goal mouth that deflected off a Knights’ defender.