CALIFORNIA 9 EDMONTON 6 F

In a season where they only lost to two teams, the Califiornia Cougars needed until the last game of the regular season to clinch a playoff spot, and that is what they did with a 9-6 win over the Edmonton Drillers at Stockton Arena.

The Cougars, who won the 2009 North American Championship will be in San Diego on March 11 trying to take the next step to defending their title.

California, who lost three games to the San Diego Sockers and one to Revolucion Tijuana, finished the season 12-4, the same mark they finished with a year ago.

Edmonton gave them an early scare.  Marcus Johnstone, Sinisa Matic, and Phil Pavicic scored to give the Drillers a 3-1 lead at the end of one period.

That’s when Nelson Santana and Enrique Tovar took over and led California on a 6-0 run.  Tovar’s two goals and Santana’s two goals plus two assists gave the Cougars a 7-4 lead at halftime and Edmonton would get no closer than three goals down.

Tovar’s third quarter goal completed a hat trick for the Cougars leading scorer.

Edmonton, who were the defending CMISL champions, but now will have to watch either Saskatoon or Calgary take the prize, fell to 5-6.

LOUISVILLE 15 DETROIT 12 F

Safet Kovacevic had three goals and three assists to lead the Louisville Lightining to a 15-12 win over the Detroit Waza before a standing room only crowd of 1,063 at Mockingbird Valley Soccer Arena.

Kovacevic now has a league-leading 52 points on the season.  Simon Bird had four goals and two assists and Glenn Volk had a hat trick plus an assist for Louisville.

George McCatty and Lindsay Smith each had hat tricks for Detroit, who lost their last two games despite scoring 12 goals in each game.

The Lightning missed the playoffs, but closed out their rookie season in the PASL-Pro with an 11-5 record.

SAN DIEGO 12 TIJUANA 6 F

The San Diego Sockers scored nine second half goals to beat the Revolucion Tijuana 12-6.  The win clinched a playoff spot and gave the Sockers the Western Division title.

Paul Wright had three goals for the Sockers (12-3), who close out their regular season Saturday night when they host the Edmonton Drillers.