Dan Antoniuk had a hat trick.

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“Anything can happen at any time really quick,” says Dan Antoniuk. “It can go either way. You have to be really sharp on both sides of the ball. We have a lot of talent on this team. We have a lot of good players, and we can score a lot of goals really quick.”

Antoniuk was zeroing in on the San Diego Sockers scoring five goals in the last four minutes of play against the Revolucion Tijuana on Wednesday night. In the scoring frenzy, Antoniuk scored his third goal of the night for his first hat trick of the season.

It all led to a 13-6 victory over Tijuana, extending the Sockers undefeated record in the Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL) to 7-0.

The Sockers next home game is January 2 (6:15 p.m.) against Western Division rival California Cougars (4-1). The Cougars are last year’s defending PASL-Pro Champions. The only loss the Cougars have in league play this year is against the Sockers, a thrilling, 5-4 overtime game.

In addition to the Sockers league play, they are also competing in the United States Open Cup for Arena Soccer. The Open Cup is separate from the regular PASL season in that it is a single elimination, season-long tournament that pits the teams of PASL-Pro (professional division) against the teams of PASL-Premier (amateur division).

The Sockers had a bye in the first round of the Open Cup and then defeated San Diego Fusion-Premier (10-6) on Monday night to advance the quarterfinals.

In that game the Sockers took an 8-0 lead into the half against the Fusion, but in the second half the Fusion out-scored the Sockers 6-2, including a 4-0 run in the third quarter.

“The boys came out and gave us a good battle in the second half,” says Sockers midfielder Nate Hetherington.

Nate Hetherington signs auto-

graphs for fans.

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The Fusion game also featured a halftime Legends Game of former Sockers greats.

“It was unbelievable to see all of those talented guys that I used to watch when I was younger,” says Hetherington. “We idolize those guys. To have a hello with them before the game and to know that they are up there cheering us on means a lot to us.”

A highlight of the Legends Game came when the fans cheered Julie Vee for kicking in a goal with his back turned to the goalie, current Sockers head coach Phil Salvagio.

“How can you go any cheaper or better than this?” says Vee, who hopes this new Sockers team will recapture the following that his Sockers teams of the 1980s had.

In other Open Cup play, the Estadio Azteca All Stars-Premier surprisingly defeated the Cougars 5-4 in the first round of play. It was the first time the Cougars had lost to a premier team. Estadio Azteca then defeated the Tacoma Stars-Premier to advance to the quarterfinals against the Sockers.

Since the Sockers are already playing at home this week, PASL announced that the quarterfinals match between the Sockers and Estadio Azteca would be Jan. 3 (1 p.m.) at the Del Mar Arena.

All tickets for this game are general admission and only available at the door for $7. Due to the late arrangements, no concessions will be available. However, fans may bring in their own food for this game.