Sockers Wallop Wings on Hat Trick by Hirmez

WICHITA, Kan. — The Sockers and Wichita Wings have a simple solution any time they have trouble scoring goals--play each other.

Sunday night, the three-time Major Indoor Soccer League champion Sockers doubled their season goal-scoring average with an 8-5 victory over the Wings.

In five games against each other last season, the Sockers scored nine goals twice and 10 on another occasion. And Wichita scored 11 goals in one of its two victories.

The happiest man for the Sockers Sunday night was Waad Hirmez, who scored three goals in the second half to put the game away.

“I was glad to do it here in Wichita because three years ago the Wings cut me after a tryout and I went back and caught on with the Sockers,” said Hirmez, a U.S. citizen born in Iraq.

Hirmez said he was the only one of 105 tryout players the Wings kept that year. He played the preseason with them and was cut.

“They were looking at me as a forward,” he said. He isn’t claiming he was misjudged. “I was an outdoor forward and didn’t have any experience indoors.”

Socker Coach Ron Newman didn’t think Hirmez was forward material, either. “We put him at defense and he learned the game well,” Newman said. “Since our goals were drying up we thought we’d put everyone with potential to score goals up front.”

It worked. San Diego now owns a 5-4 record and Wichita dropped to 3-4.

Newman wouldn’t label it a permanent move but said: “It gives us more confidence in him.”

Hirmez scored twice in the third period on passes from Branko Segota to give the Sockers a commanding 6-3 lead. His second goal was a beauty, a three-quarters bicycle kick just inside the left post.

“The defenders were in front of me so I knew I had time,” he said. “Instead of heading it, I used a bicycle kick.”

It was another exercise in frustration for Wichita, which became the only team this season to outshoot the Sockers but still came up short. The Wings had a 36-21 edge.

Chico Borja scored his ninth and 10th goals of the season for Wichita, but Erik Rasmussen went scoreless for the third game this season. He is being double- and triple-teamed.

Rasmussen and Coach Charlie Cooke say that is no surprise.

“I have to keep going,” Rasmussen said. “I have to play a little better. Right now, I don’t feel I’m playing well. And when you have several players injured, it’s more difficult.

“The problem is not shots. We have had our chances but we’re not putting them away. And we’re not playing defense well. He have to work on that.”

The Sockers scored their first two goals just a minute and a half apart in the first period. Segota got by rookie defender Dale Ervine on the left boards with a pass from Toth and scored from 20 feet. Willrich scored 92 seconds later from short range on a pass from Cha Cha Namdar.