The San Diego Sockers won twice on Sunday night to reach the Ron Newman Cup final.
The defending Major Arena Soccer League champions defeated the Chihuahua Savage, 6-2 and 4-1, to win the best-of-three semifinal series before a crowd of 2,271 at Pechanga Arena.
The Sockers will face the Florida Tropics in the final with the first game in Florida this weekend.
Felipe Gonzalez’s header 12:41 into the third quarter gave the Sockers the lead for good en route to a 6-2 win in the full 60-minute in Game Two. San Diego outscored Chihuahua, 3-0, in the fourth quarter to force a 15-minute extra time match The Sockers recorded a 4-1 win. Christian Gutierrez recorded a goal with two assists. Juan Manuel Rojo added two late goals.
“We battle each other hard, but at the end of the day it’s a game, and somebody has to win and somebody has to lose,” Sockers head coach Phil Salvagio said. “Chihuahua’s a fantastic team. That was a great series. You can’t get closer and better than those three games were. It’s live or die.”
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