Sockers Ready to Party After Overtime Victory : Soccer: McGeough’s goal gives defending MSL champions a 5-4 victory and a 3-0 lead in series against Dallas.

DALLAS —  The Sockers were chanting in their Reunion Arena locker room Tuesday night, a tradition that usually follows the clinching of a championship.

It was a one-word chant, “Hero,” and it was being serenaded upon defender Jimmy McGeough, who scored his first goal as a Socker two minutes into overtime in Game 3 of the MSL championship series to give the Sockers a 5-4 victory and a commanding three-games-to-none lead in the best-of-seven series.

While the Sockers’ words, which were spoken in cliches, said, “It’s never over until the last game,” their actions said, “This thing’s in the bag.”

How’s this for confidence:

- Almost four minutes into the second half, Paul Wright took the ball from Dallas’ Tatu, slowed down to tease the MSL’s fourth all-time leading goal scorer, waved at him to hurry up and said, “Come on, you little baby.”

- After McGeough beat goalie Scott Manning with a bending shot that slipped inside the left post, his teammates piled on top of him, whooping, hollering and shaking their fists as if they were posing for a picture on a cereal box.

- The Sockers were in such a frenzy, they were suffocating McGeough with their joy. “I had to tell them, ‘Please get off of me--I can’t breathe,’ ” McGeough said.

So the pile of players moved into the locker room, where assistant coach Erich Geyer pronounced it “party time.” He later amended his statement: “There’s nothing wrong with celebrating a little bit, maybe a beer or two, but these guys are professional enough to know to keep it moderate.”

When reporters showed up, McGeough was at the drink table. He surveyed his choices--beer or a diet soft drink--glanced at the oncoming reporters, and grabbed a soft drink.

“I don’t drink,” he said.

That’s when the rest of the Sockers started singing. “Hero, hero, hero,” they chanted at McGeough.

The Irishman who doesn’t drink smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

What could he say?

He started out by noting the luck of it all.

“I had just gotten on the field,” he said. “Alex (Golovnia) had come off as the ball came loose on the left side. I was on the right, it crossed over really well and I just shot it with my left foot.”

The ball started on its path to McGeough’s left foot after Paul Wright had rocketed a shot that deflected off defender Jeff Agoos and toward the red line. Before it got there, McGeough got to it.

A raucous crowd of 6,703 went silent. And for a moment, so too did the Sockers.

“They were probably thinking, ‘Oh, my God, Jim scored a goal,’ ” McGeough said.

That’s a pretty accurate assessment of Coach Ron Newman’s thoughts.

“Jimmy McGeough doesn’t score a goal all year, and then he hits a line drive like that,” Newman said. “My goodness, it was like a laser. Whew.”

But this laser cast darkness on the Sidekicks, who, after taking a 1-0 lead, had to come back to tie it at 3 and again at 4.

In fact, the Sidekicks didn’t get the goal that sent it into overtime until four minutes remained in regulation. That’s when Tatu pounced on the rebound of a shot by David Doyle that Victor Nogueira had punched away. With the goalie still on the ground, Tatu had the entire net to shoot at and he didn’t miss.

It was his first goal of the series, but it didn’t seem to bother the Sockers as much as some of his other actions. Tatu, who has been known to take a dive to draw a whistle, seemed to have a personal battle brewing with Wright. The two players pushed and shoved each other all night.

“The refs,” Wright said, “they just baby him too much. He’s like a little baby the way he acts out there. At one point he wanted a piece of me, but Terry (Woodberry) took care of that.”

Woodberry played his first three seasons in the MSL with the Sidekicks, but because of a personality conflict with Tatu, he was cut before this season. The Sockers picked him up two days later.

Woodberry got a chance to settle a score with Tatu when, with 0.8 seconds remaining in the third quarter, the Sockers were given a restart along the left boards. Woodberry lined up to take it, and Tatu was the first line of defense. Woodberry shot it as hard as he could right at Tatu, whose right thigh deflected the ball high into the stands with 0.1 seconds remaining. That gave Woodberry one more free shot at his old teammate, and Woodberry connected.

“That felt good,” Woodberry said. “But I was trying to aim higher.”

Personal vendettas aside, the Sockers need only one more victory to clinch their 10th championship. And Dallas looks like a beaten team.

The Sidekicks are down to their third-string goalie in Scott Manning, inserted because of a hip injury to Hank Henry, and Jan Goossens--Dallas’ most gifted playmaker who missed Game 2 with tendinitis in his left Achilles but played Tuesday--said he probably would miss Friday’s Game 4.

Besides their injuries, Dallas has showed they cannot keep up with the Sockers. Over and over they tried to counterattack Tuesday night, only to find themselves bogged down in the midfield behind at least three hustling Socker defenders.

“We were getting back really well,” Newman said. “All I can remember is one counterattack there at the end of regular time.”

That came with 40 seconds showing on the clock as Goossens sent a perfect crossing pass through the penalty area to Mike Uremovich, who, with Nogueira yet to react to the pass, shot wide.

“That’s indoor soccer,” said Dallas Coach Gordon Jago. “If you don’t take your chances, they’ll take theirs.”