January 22, 2024 – Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) – Empire Strykers News Release
Ontario, Calif. – Heading into another pair of back-to-back Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) games, the Empire Strykers are hanging on to their playoff hopes by a thread. With his side just outside the Western Conference postseason picture in fifth, Strykers ‘keeper Brandon Gomez emphasized the importance of every available point going forward. One way for Empire to avoid a third consecutive absence from the knockout rounds would be to overtake fourth-place Tacoma, Thursday’s adversary, which holds a six-point cushion and has two games in hand on Head Coach Paul Wright’s men.
The 2-8-0 (wins-losses-overtime/shootout losses) Strykers travel to take on the 4-4-0 Stars on January 25 at 7:05 p.m. PT, followed by a home match against the St. Louis Ambush on Sunday, January 28, at 4:05 p.m. PT. Tickets for the crucial clash with the Ambush are available here, and both upcoming games will be streamed live on Twitch. A full channel lineup for MASL broadcasts may be found here.
Thursday’s away meeting with the Stars is a classic six-pointer, as a fourth consecutive Strykers loss would put them at a nine-point disadvantage compared to both Tacoma and the third-place Chihuahua Savage, provided the Savage downs visiting bottom dwellers Dallas Sidekicks on Friday. Defending MASL champion Chihuahua has one game in hand on Empire.
The Strykers most recently fell 8-5 at home to long-time rival San Diego Sockers. The match featured a fiercely-contested opening half in which Sockers backstop Boris Pardo demonstrated why he is counted among the best in the league. Empire then fell victim to yet another subpar third-quarter performance, conceding five straight times, before battling back in the closing period and scoring the final four tallies.
“We looked really good in the first half and things were pretty even,” said Strykers netminder Gomez. “Hats off to Boris for making some great saves during that phase. We’re frustrated because it’s not the first time we’ve made rookie mistakes and struggled in the third quarter. I think I personally could have stopped one or two more shots to give us a better chance. To our credit, we woke up near the end. With one or two more minutes, who knows, maybe we would have tied it. If we can avoid having a poor stretch in every game, we’ll put ourselves in a much better position to get results.”
While Gomez is third in the league in saves (120), Empire’s…