Splash Stays Afloat With 8-5 Victory Over Sacramento

Their backs to the wall and facing the indignity of being swept out of the playoffs by a team that finished five games back in the standings, the Splash answered its biggest challenge of the year.

Getting five goals from defensive-oriented players, the Splash scored an 8-5 victory over Sacramento Monday night in front of 7,439 at the Arco Arena.

The Splash will return to The Pond of Anaheim Wednesday for a third and final game of the first round of the Continental Indoor Soccer League series. Kickoff is 7:35 p.m.

The Splash is 12-3 this season at The Pond, including a 10-4 loss in Game 1.

For the second consecutive game, neither Dale Ervine (76 points) nor Raffaele Ruotolo (68 points) scored. The two are the team’s top two goal-scorers and assist men, and they have yet to do either in the playoffs.

“I think it shows we’re not one-dimensional, we’re two-dimensional,” Splash Coach George Fernandez said. “They do things besides scoring. Obviously, without them scoring, we still won so they’re doing something right. You can have no points and have a great game. You can score three goals and have a (bad) game. Both of them played damn good tonight and we played great as a team.

“Dale and Raffe won’t score in this series because of the style Sacramento plays; they get five guys behind the ball and crowd the box, so it’s hard for them to get in a position to score.”

Sacramento got 14 blocks from its defense, and goalie Mike Dowler was again impressive. His 12 saves give him 27 in two games.

The Splash also hit the post or crossbar a half-dozen times.

Finding it easier to score than Ervine and Ruotolo were defenders Shane Hickson and Ralph Black--who scored twice--defender-turned-midfielder Doug Neely, who had a goal and two assists, and midfielder Jaime Francisco, who is playing because of his defense.

Two offensive threats, Rod Castro and Armando Valdivia, also scored. Castro tied the score, 4-4, in the third quarter, and Valdivia put the Splash ahead, 6-4 and 8-5.

The Splash scored twice in the final 3 1/2 minutes.

“As a team, we played outstanding,” Fernandez said. “We were disciplined, kept our focus, our concentration was excellent, we played like a team. Whenever anybody got beat, there was somebody right there to help. If we keep playing like this, we’ll be very hard to beat; once we deviate from that, we get in trouble.

“It was completely opposite of the other night. It was like night and day.”

The Knights are not the kind of team that can come from behind, but the Splash had a tough time getting anything more than a two-goal lead. Although the Splash took a 3-2 lead at 14 minutes 15 seconds of the second quarter--its first lead of the series--the Splash gave it back by allowing a goal 54 seconds into the third quarter.

After Roger Gibbins scored only his fourth goal of the season to give Sacramento a 4-3 lead, Castro, Francisco and Valdivia scored in a span of 3:14.

But another lapse allowed Sacramento to make it 6-5, when Jon Parry scored his third goal 27 seconds into the fourth quarter.

“It kills me,” Fernandez said of the quick goals. “The team that’s going to win this series is the team that makes the least amount of mistakes. Most of their goals were mistakes and it just killed us. We were fortunate enough that they made more.”

Jorge Valenzuela had nine saves, including a couple of crucial efforts.

The Splash outshot Sacramento, 35-17 in the game, but had a tough time having anything to show for it early on. The Splash had an 18-8 edge in the first half, but had only a 3-2 lead.

The power play again killed the Splash. Sacramento had the third-worst power-play percentage in the league (34.5%) during the regular season, but converted on its one opportunity in Game 2 after making three of four in Game 1.

The Splash did not get a single power-play opportunity against the Knights, who allowed the third-most opportunities during the season.