January 19, 2023 – Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) News Release
The San Diego Sockers-presented by Kaiser Permanente San Diego-travel to the Keystone State of Pennsylvania for a pair of MASL road contests against the Harrisburg Heat. Saturday’s match will kick off at 4:05pm (PST) from the Farm Show Equine Arena, and will be streamed live on Twitch (channel @masl_soccer3). Sunday’s match will kick off at 2:05pm on @masl_soccer2. Saturday’s match will be accompanied by a club watch party at the Dana on Mission Bay main ballroom, starting at 3:30pm.
This weekend begins and concludes the season series between the Sockers (6-0, 17 points) and Heat (1-6, 3 points), and fills up two of the three remaining Western-vs-Eastern Conference matchups of the 2022-23 schedule. San Diego won at Harrisburg last season by a 4-1 score on March 27. In the MASL, the Sockers hold a 4-0 lifetime record against the Heat, including 3-0 in Harrisburg. All-time and dating back to prior pro leagues, the Sockers are 5-0 against Harris-burg. While the Sockers have not lost to the Heat in PASL/MASL play, the matches in Pennsyl-vania have been close, with San Diego prevailing by scores of 8-3, 7-5, 7-5 and 4-1. In the 2022-23 MASL schedule, clubs are separated into two conferences, playing twenty matches within conference and four matches without.
The MASL standings are a bit jumbled due to uneven matches played from club to club. The Sockers are in second place behind Mesquite (6-1-1, 18 points), but have two matches in hand on the Outlaws. San Diego will make up one match of difference this weekend, as they play twice and the Outlaws play once. In the West, the Sockers lead Chihuahua (5-0-1, 15 points) by two points. The top three teams in each conference are guaranteed playoff berths, with fourth and fifth place meeting in a Play-in Game to finish the brackets.
Last week, the Sockers welcomed the Kansas City Comets to San Diego for a Sunday evening match, prevailing by a final score of 7-3. San Diego used two power play goals in the opening two minutes of the third quarter to open up a match that sat 2-0 for the Sockers at halftime. Brandon Escoto scored a pair of goals, with five other individual goal scorers for San Diego. Goalkeeper Boris Pardo stopped 13-of-16 shots faced and has picked up all six available wins in net.
San Diego is building off the success of a 23-0-1 regular season in 2021-22, as well as a 6-0-1 playoff run. The club has ten straight wins in all…