Toth brings shutout, wins over Sockers and Wave into March 22 showdown in San Diego

The Major Arena Soccer League regular season will conclude for both the San Diego Sockers and the Ontario Fury with a March 22 game in San Diego. Ontario Fury goalkeeper Chris Toth, a 2007 Fallbrook High School graduate who had played with the Sockers before being traded to the Fury in November 2018, will once again return to San Diego.

This time he will return after having achieved his first Fury shutout and his first win over the Sockers. Toth and the Fury also defeated the defending MASL champions with a victory over the Milwaukee Wave, March 1.

“It’s coming off better than the beginning,” Toth said.

The March 1 win against the Wave gave the Fury an 11-9 record after 20 games. The team had a 4-8 record before the Feb. 7 shutout win. On March 4, the MASL named Toth as the league’s goalkeeper of the week for the fourth consecutive week.

The Fury’s game before the shutout was Feb. 1 at home against the Soles de Sonora. Toth allowed as many goals in the penalty kick shootout as he did in regulation. He made 12 saves and allowed three goals during regulation and the field overtime, but the shootout advantage gave Sonora a 4-3 win.

On Feb. 7, the Fury hosted the Mesquite Outlaws. Toth obtained his first shutout as a Fury goalkeeper, making 11 saves in Ontario’s 7-0 victory.

“It was awesome,” Toth said. “I feel like that was a little bit of a turning point of the season. We played good defense in that game. We’ve kind of built on that.”

Toth said that a shutout involves the defensive success of field players as well as the goalkeeper.

“The guys in front of me were playing really well,” he said. “I really only needed to make like three big saves.”

The shutout was the second for Toth in an MASL game. He was with the Sockers and Ontario was the opponent Nov. 19, 2017, when Toth turned away 16 shots in the 8-0 game.

Toth had seven shutouts as a Fallbrook High School senior, including four during Avocado League competition, but had not previously recorded a shutout in a regular-season indoor league game.

Although Toth had previously recorded a shutout, the Feb. 7 game was the first shutout win in Fury history.

“It’s a cool thing do go down in history with the Fury with the shutout. It’s pretty cool to have that down in the books,” Toth said.

The Sockers’ first regular-season shutout was Jan. 3, 1986. Zoltan Toth was the Sockers’ goalkeeper that night, so Chris Toth’s shutout means that he recorded the Fury’s first shutout and his father had the Sockers’ first regular-season shutout.

“I actually was not aware of that, but that’s kind of a good stat,” Toth said. “That’s kind of a special thing.”

Backup goalkeeper Claysson De Lima was in the nets Feb. 14 when the Fury played in Turlock. The game ended as a 5-3 Ontario win.

The Feb. 17 game in Ontario was the third of the year between the Sockers and the Fury. The Dec. 13 game in San Diego was a 4-2 Sockers victory while the Sockers prevailed by a 4-3 score Jan. 5 in San Diego.

“We had the momentum going and we wanted to really stick it to them at home,” Toth said. “We wanted to make sure we definitely defended the house.”

Toth made 12 saves in Ontario’s 7-3 victory.

“That was a nice win. I wanted that one for a while,” he said. “It felt good.”

The Sockers had won their previous 10 games against Ontario including all six games during the 2018-2019 season which was Toth's first with the Fury.

Toth said that the season’s previous games against the Sockers were close.

“We felt like we were in a good position to win,” he said.

Boris Pardo shared time in the nets with Toth for three seasons before taking over as the Sockers’ primary goalie after Toth was traded to the Fury. Pardo made 15 saves Feb. 17, and the Fury scored their final goal after the Sockers pulled Pardo for a sixth attacker.

“Every time we play them it’s going to be a battle,” Toth said.

Toth and De Lima shared goalkeeper duties Feb. 19 when the Fury hosted the Dallas Sidekicks and prevailed by a 13-4 margin. Toth’s contributions also included a first-period assist against the Sidekicks.

A weekend trip to Missouri resulted in Toth saving 16 St. Louis Ambush shots Feb. 21 in a 7-4 win and 21 Kansas City Comets attempts Feb. 23 in an 11-8 victory in which Toth also had an assist on a second quarter goal.

The Fury’s six-game winning streak ended Feb. 28 with a 9-8 loss in Turlock. De Lima was in goal that night.

The game in Turlock was followed by the home match against the defending league champions.

“It was a game that was circled on the schedule for sure,” Toth said.

The Wave entered the game with a 12-5 record. Milwaukee had played in San Diego the previous night and lost to the Sockers after a shootout.

Ontario led 3-0 after the end of the first period and 6-1 at halftime.

“We did really well,” Toth said. “We defended.”

The final score was 7-3.

“It was a really good game. I thought I played very well. My teammates played really well,” Toth said.

Toth made 18 saves. “It’s a lot,” Toth said. “It was a busy night.”

Toth also had a second-period assist.

Last year the MASL had four divisions and the top two teams in each division participated in the playoffs. Ontario missed the playoffs by one game. This year the league has two divisions with the top four teams in each division qualifying for the postseason. The Fury stood third in the standings after their win against Milwaukee.

“We need to win. We need to execute. We need to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Toth said.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].