CALIFORNIA 7 SAN DIEGO 6 (SO)

The California Cougars put the cork in the San Diego Sockers Western Division title celebration and improved their own playoff chances with a 7-6 shootout win at Stockton Arena.

San Diego (11-2) still needs just one more victory or one more Cougars (11-4) loss to clinch the Western Division,  but they failed to complete the sweep of the four game series.  San Diego finished 3-1 against California, but all four games were decided by one goal and three of the games went beyond regulation time.

Kraig Chiles gave the Sockers an early 1-0, but the Cougars dominated possession and reeled off the next five goals to take a commanding 5-1 lead.  The Sockers got a late goal, but still trailed 5-2 at halftime.

Chiles then scored a natural hat trick giving him 30 goals on the year and tying the game at 5-5.  Majell Aterado gave California the lead again with under six minutes to play when he took the ball all the way on a Cougars 4 v 2 fast break.  The quick transition came following a successful penalty kill that saw California down two men briefly.

The Cougars looked like they would be able to withstand the Sockers pressure until David Vedder’s errant clear set up a restart at the top of the arc that Paul Wright buried to tie the game with 1:25 remaining in the fourth quarter.

The game went to overtime which saw many near misses and great saves by California’s Jesus Molina and San Diego’s Riley Swift.  The overtime period ended with the score still tied 6-6 meaning California only scored once in the game’s final 45 minutes.

For the first time in PASL-Pro history a game went to OT shootouts.  The shootout format is the same as the NHL’s except players each get five seconds rather than one shot.

In round one, former Cougar Aaron Susi was stopped by Molina.  Enrique Tovar scored for California, but Miguel Luna tied it at 1-1.  Antonio Sutton scored to give California a 2-1 lead after two rounds meaning Molina could end the game with another save.

Chiles has been a thorn in California’s side all year and now he had a chance to even the shootout and keep San Diego alive.  He dribbled in, but Molina came out aggressively to the top of his box and smothered the attempt to give California an emotional home win.