March 4, 2023 – Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) – Tacoma Stars News Release
Tacoma Stars’ Fellipe Souza in action
(Tacoma Stars)
ALLEN, TX. – The Stars (7-7-1) entered Friday night’s game looking for three points to keep pace in the race for the fifth playoff seed in the MASL’s Western Conference. They settled for two points after a last-minute goal in regulation by Jamael Cox to send the game to overtime followed by another goal from Cox in the OT, both assisted by Nick Perera, to defeat the Dallas Sidekicks (0-13-3) 10-9 at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center.
Perera topped all scorers in the game with a seven-point performance on a pair of goals and five assists. Chiva Ramirez recorded his first MASL hat-trick and Cox finished with his two late goals in the winning effort. In all, eight Tacoma players posted at least one point on the night.
The Sidekicks, who were searching for their first win of the season, led by as many as four goals in the second half. They were up 7-3 with 14:24 left in the 3rd quarter after scoring their seventh unanswered goal to that point.
After a flurry of back-and-forth scoring Dallas still held a three-goal lead at 9-6 when Flavio Guzman scored for the Sidekicks with 10:23 left in regulation.
Tacoma logged the game’s last four goals, all of which were assisted by Perera to stun the Sidekicks fans, who were so close to celebrating the team’s first victory of the season.
Nani Mendoza and Ramirez scored 16 seconds apart to bring the Stars within one, at 9-8 with 9:41 on the clock. The Dallas defense then held strong for the next nine minutes until the first of Cox’s two goals to seal the Stars’ seventh win of the season.
Tacoma is back in action tomorrow night in Mesquite at 5:05 pm PST before wrapping up their road swing the following week in Mexico. The Stars will finally return home on Saturday, March 18 to host Mesquite for Retro/Alumni Night at 7:05 pm.
Tickets for that game are available at www.tacomastars.com/tickets.
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