DEL MAR–Like the Chargers down the road, the San Diego Sockers showed they have the depth to win even with their reserves on the field. Playing their fourth game at the Del Mar Arena in seven days, the Sockers rested veteran stars like Paul Wright and Aaron Susi and still emerged with an 11-5 victory over Estadio Azteca in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup.
Sockers regulars Nate Heatherington and Anthony Medina led the way for San Diego with a hat trick apiece. Braeden Cloutier added two goals for the Sockers, with Diego Rovira, Eric Wunderle and Garth Archibald also scoring.
Similar to the FA Cup in English soccer, the U.S. Open Cup is open to teams from all divisions of indoor soccer. Despite coming up from the lesser PASL-Premier division, Estadio Azteca had already dealt U.S. Open Cup defeats to the California Cougars and Tacoma Stars, making them something of a giant killer.
The game was tied at 2-2 after one period, as the Sockers shook out the lactic acid from the previous night’s 8-7 overtime thriller against California. Heatherington scored to give San Diego the lead for good with 9:17 to play in the second, and Medina followed with the first of his three tallies at the 6:50 mark.
Less than two minutes later Heatherington found the back of the net again, and after a late Azteca goal the Sockers brought a 5-3 lead into the halftime locker room.
S0ckers defense, led by Tim Edwards in goal, kept Azteca scoreless in the third, while Heatherington, Medina and Cloutier each added to their list with goals to make it an 8-3 game. Heatherington completed his hat trick with 4:13 to play in the third.
While U.S. Open Cup games do not count toward the PASL-Pro standings or stats, the victory does give the Sockers a perfect 10-0 record this season (8-0 PASL). They advance to the Open Cup semi-finals, to be played in February, against either Vitesse Dallas or the Denver Dynamite.
Next up for the Sockers is a weekend trip to Canada, where they will take on Calgary United and the Edmonton Drillers from the Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League (CMISL). Sockers fans can catch live webstreaming broadcasts of both games right here on 619Sports.Net, starting Saturday night at 6pm from the Subway Soccer Centre in Calgary, Alberta.
UPCOMING BROADCAST SCHEDULE
1/9/10: Sockers at Calgary, 6pm
1/10/10: Sockers at Edmonton, 6pm
Both games can be heard on our livestream channel, CLICK HERE.
