The California Cougars win the thriller of the year defeating the San Diego Sockers 7-6 in a shootout after 4 quarters and a 15 minute golden goal overtime. It was the first shootout in PASL Pro history. It ended San Diego's streak of three straight wins against the Cougars, all by 1 goal, one of those in overtime in San Diego. The Cougars also pulled a full game and a half, ahead of the Louisville Lightning for the playoff wild card spot, after Louiville's 7-6 loss to Cincinnati last night in overtime. The Cougars lock up the playoff spot with a win in their final home game against Edmonton February 25th, or a loss by Louisville, in either of their remaining two games. 

 

The shootout began with San Diego shooting first, and it was former Cougar Aaron Susi shooting, and it was saved by Cougars goalkeeper Jesus Molina. The Cougars Enrique Tovar shot next scoring on Riley Swift, to make it 1-0 Cougars, after the first round. Chicky Luna scored on Molina for San Diego, and Antonio Sutton scored for the Cougars making it 2-1 Cougars at the end of round 2. San Diego's MVP candidate Kraig Chiles shot next for San Diego, and Molina came up with a big save for a Cougars victory.

 

The Cougars began the fourth quarter with a 5-3 lead, but San Diego rolled off two straigt goals, to tie the game at with 10:44 left to play. The Cougars then went down a man on a blue card on Pedro Lupercio for boarding. Then at the 7:51 mark, the Cougars recieved another blue card for their sixth foul, and were down two players for 11 seconds. Nelson Santana recieved a yellow card also at the 7:51 mark and the Cougars lost him for five minutes, but do not play a man down for a yellow card. The Cougars defense killed off all of the penalties and with 5:46 left to play in the game Majell Aterado scored and the Cougars took a 6-5 lead. San Diego called a timeout at the 2:18 mark, and brought on Paul Wright as the sixth attacker. Wright scored with 1:25 left in the fourth quarter to tie the game and send it into overtime. 

 

The Cougars struck early in this match taking a 2-1 lead at the end of the first quarter, and a 5-2 lead into the half. Molina, who has been struggling of late, recorded seven saves in the fourth quarter and five in the overtime to keep the Cougars in the game. Kraig Chiles had four goals for San Diego in the match, and the Cougars had a team effort in the scoring catagory, with six different players finding the net. Sutton, Figueroa, Robledo, Tovar, Santana and Aterado all scored.

 

The Cougars next game is against the Edmonton Drillers Thursday February 25th, 7:30PM at the Stockton Arena. The last time these two teams met was in the semi-finals of the playoff last year, in what is considered one of the greatest arena soccer games of all time, which the Cougars won 10-9 in overtime.