The San Diego Sockers (5-0) continued their dominance of the Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL) with an 8-3 victory over the Tacoma Stars (3-4.) It was also Military Appreciation Night and Brigadier General Daniel D. Yoo, the Commanding General of the Western Recruiting Region and Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, made a special appearance on the field to deliver the first kick and stayed for the entire game to see yet another Sockers victory.

“Military Appreciation Night is one of our most important nights of the year,” Sockers general manager John Kentera said before the game. “I have the greatest respect for the men and women serving in our armed forces and to have a great man like Brigadier General Yoo joining us will be a tremendous night for our organization and the people of San Diego.”

The Sockers distributed 500 free tickets to Saturday’s game through the MCRD and Hall of Champions Youth Sports partnership for service members and their families.

Sockers forward Kraig Chiles was honored at half time by the military for volunteering his time for the past five years coaching soccer camps for the children of our servicemen and women. “It’s very special to me,” Chiles said of the honor. “One of my best friends is currently deployed right now in Afghanistan. He has been there for two or three months and we are always thinking of him. It’s good to give back a little bit.”

Chiles continued his explosive start of the season against the Stars with two goals and three assists. Chiles’ goals were his 13th and 14th of the young season, including the go-ahead tally with 6:26 to play in the third quarter.Other highlights included Majell Aterado who added two goals and an assist for the Sockers while team captain Aaron Susi netted his fourth goal and tenth point of the season, moving within ten points of 500 for his career.

San Diego built a 6-3 lead by the end of the third quarter and showed some of their best teamwork of the season as they frequently passed the ball and played keep-away for most of the fourth quarter. “We were trying to break them down,” coach Phil Salvagio said. “They are very good defensively.” This led to the Stars pulling their goalie and in turn the Sockers knocked in two easy empty net scores to put the game out of reach.

Working more as a team has been a focus for Salvagio in recent practices. “We have been working on it all week,” Salvagio said. “Not just banging the boards and playing tough, but playing a little soccer. We are trying a little different style and it worked pretty well.”

The Sockers have also improved since the beginning of the season at limiting the penalties that they commit creating power play opportunities for their opponents. “We are really trying to concentrate on not giving away so many stupid fouls,” Chiles said. “We’ve been giving away straight blue cards instead of six foul blue cards. It really has been a little bit of the talk of the team and we are still gelling.”

Despite now being 5-0, Salvagio agrees the team has not yet played up to their full potential. “This is our first half-way decent game we have played so far,” Salvagio said. “It’s coming around and I would say we played almost three quarters of a good game.”

Chiles pointed out areas where improvement is still needed. “Our power play is not good enough,” Chiles said. “Our free kicks are not good enough. We are not really working for each other. It seems like a bunch of individuals out there. There is so much talent on the team that we make up for it, but it is definitely not good enough to win in the playoffs.”

The Sockers will receive an early pseudo playoff test in their next home game when they host the Las Vegas Knights in their first round of the Third Annual U.S. Open Cup. The U.S Open Cup is a single elimination season-long tournament that does not count in PASL standings.

The Sockers are the two-time defending champions of the U.S. Open Cup and chances are they will advance to the next round with a win over the Knights. By taking down the Stars the Sockers won their 13th straight PASL league game and 18th in a row overall, counting playoffs and U.S. Open Cup action. San Diego also improved to 27-0 all-time at the Del Mar Arena.

The Sockers U.S. Open Cup game is on Tuesday, December 27 at the Del Mar Arena with kickoff at 7:05 p.m..