4/10/10 - The San Diego Sockers put their championship belt on the line against the Louisville Lightning and came away with another trophy.  San Diego beat Louisville 11-7 to capture the US Open Arena Soccer Championship before 863 at Mockingbird Valley Sports Arena.

Eric Wunderle led the Sockers with two goals and three assists.  Aaron Susi added a goal and two assists before leaving the game with an ankle injury with the Sockers leading 7-1.  Chiky Luna and Anthony Medina had two goals each.

Safet Kovacevic, Louisville’s regular season leading scorer, had three goals and an assist.

The Sockers and Lightning did not meet in the regular season, so the matchup had a lot of intrigue.  The Sockers won the North American Championship in March and the Lightning led the PASL-Pro in scoring, but missed the playoffs by one game.

By halftime, Sockers coach Phil Salvagio had a message for 619sports.net broadcaster Craig Elsten to send to the Lightning, "Tell them, ’Welcome to the pros.’"

The Sockers roster has far more experience and depth than Louisville’s, but some of San Diego’s most experienced players weren’t a factor.  Paul Wright, Sean Bowers, and Braeden Cloutier didn’t make the trip and Susi was injured early on.  The Lightning, meanwhile were missing their #2 scorer Glenn Volk.

San Diego put the upstart Lightning in their place early.  Nate Hetherington, Diego Rovira, and Susi scored 1:10 apart and 97 seconds into the game the Sockers had a 3-0 lead.

The lead swelled to 7-1 and San Diego led at halftime, 7-2.  Louisville would get as close as 7-4, but Wunderle and Josh Barton scored to swell the lead back to five goals.  Louisville again cut it to a three-goal margin, but got no closer than 9-6.