For a second year in a row, the Chihuahua Savage defeated the San Diego Sockers in the elimination match of the MASL Western Conference finals at Pechanga Arena San Diego on Sunday night.

The Sockers were forced into winning both last night after losing game one 13-7 on April 18 at Chihuahua to book a trip to the Ron Newman Cup final and a chance to claim its 17th championship.

Things looked to be going as planned after San Diego took a 4-1 lead in the second game of the series led by the efforts of team captain Kraig Chiles who scored a hat-trick. The defending MASL champion Savage managed to claw back and tie the score 4-4 forcing the match into sudden-death overtime, which would continue unresolved until forward Gabriel Costa ended things less than a minute into the third overtime with a right-footed shot from 10 yards out for the 5-4 victory.

After a brief hydration back, both teams were back to action for the deciding 15-minute game where Savage took a 2-0 lead until the Sockers scored a goal courtesy of Tijuana native Brandon Escoto with 45 seconds left. San Diego tried to find the tying goal in the remaining time with its extra attacker but the effort was to no avail as Chihuahua managed to defend until the horn sounded and booked its ticket to the championship match.

The Sockers were swept by Chihuahua in all three regular-season meetings but still managed to finish ahead of the Savage in the standings, which allowed the team, led by head coach Phil Salvagio, to have home-field advantage in the series.

Chihuahua will enter the Ron Newman Cup finals as the favorite after the Monterrey Flash were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Milwaukee Wave despite the team from Mexico finishing undefeated (24-0) during the regular season.

Photos by Eddie Trujillo