Brian Farber’s first goal on Sunday night for the San Diego Sockers was as ugly as it was lucky. His second was brilliant, though it seemed like it would be a mere footnote in a game filled with strange, notable moments.
But the Sockers aren’t making anything look easy right now, and it turned out that Farber’s looping shot from near midfield was the game-winner in an 8-7 victory against the Sonora Soles in front of an announced crowd of 2,907 at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
In a play they’d planned in practice for weeks against any team desperately employing a sixth attacker, Sockers goalie Boris Pardo threw a long to Farber, who volleyed his shot into an open net to give the Sockers a two-goal lead with 2 minutes, 9 seconds left in the fourth period.
“It was a matter of putting my foot on the ball,” Farber said afterward. “But it was kind of a tough ball.”
As they had done all game, however, the Soles fought back, and San Diego would ultimately need Farber’s last tally when Sonora kept the sixth attacker in and Adrian Miller scored with 29 seconds remaining.
From there, the Sockers were able to run out the clock, though the game ended in near fisticuffs when Sonora’s Ivan Acuna shoved San Diego forward Brandon Escoto headfirst into the boards.
Acuna was red-carded with less than a second left on the clock, and while the teams scuffled and then calmed down, Escoto laid on the turf for several minutes before being helped to the locker room.
On “Star Wars Night,” with the Sockers wearing black jerseys emblazoned with Darth Vadar on their chests, San Diego had three players score twice — Farber, Leo De Oliveira and Slavisa Ubiparipovic.
Farber got credit for scoring with 4:03 left to give San Diego a 7-6 lead, but it was not pretty. The ball he intended as a bounced off Sonora defender Jesus Alberto Avendano, then hit the post, and then caromed off Avenando again and over the goal line.
The win was the sixth straight for the Sockers, who haven’t lost since their season opener, but they are struggling to put a full 60 minutes together. A week ago, they trailed visiting Tacoma by three before winning 8-6, and on Sunday, they were two goals down midway through the third period against a 2-5 Sonora team playing for the second night in a row.
“Everybody circles us on their calendar,” Sockers head coach Phil Salvagio said by way of explanation.
“It’s good to be hated,” he added with a shrug and smile.
There are concerns, however.
The Sockers’ all-time leading goal scorer, Kraig Chiles, has been hobbled by ankle and hamstring issues, and then played only a couple minutes on Sunday before leaving with what the team described as a hip injury. For the fourth straight game, Chiles was held scoreless while suiting up, and that has never happened in his 11-year career with the club.
“Kraig is as important as anybody to any team,” Farber said. “Not having him is killing us right now. We’re trying to figure it out.”
The Sockers also overcame what seemed to be a coaching gaffe when Salvagio, with his team leading 2-1, replaced Pardo in goal with backup Diego Arriaga after halftime. Sonora was on a power play at the time and scored to tie it at 2. After gifting Sonora with another goal with an errant , Arriaga was pulled and Pardo came back in.
“It’s my fault,” Salvagio said. “I put a young kid in a bad spot.”
