Empire Collapses Late, Falls 6-3 to Visiting San Diego

Sockers trio shines in ruthless team performance

Box score

WATCH: Postgame comments from Marco Fabián

WATCH: Postgame comments from Brian Orozco

Ontario, Calif. — The Empire Strykers fell 6-3 at home to the San Diego Sockers on Friday evening, failing to make it back-to-back wins against their longtime rivals and dropping to 1-1-0 (wins-losses-overtime/shootout losses) on their 2025-26 Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) campaign. The visiting side’s victory was powered in large part by a stingy team performance on defense — with goalkeeper Chris Toth’s .786 save percentage leading the charge — and by three-point displays from attackers Leonardo De Oliveira and Nick Perera.

In a fiercely contested opening quarter, San Diego nearly took the lead early, but ‘keeper Orozco and captain Robert Palmer jointly threw themselves into the short-range effort to keep the match scoreless. However, the visitors did take the lead about halfway through the opening period, indoor legend Perera picking out De Oliveira for 1-0. Empire would level things shortly thereafter, as Marco Fabián converted a helper by Ant Powell.

The best opportunity of the evenly matched second quarter came when Strykers backstop Orozco joined the attack and was nearly caught with his hand in the cookie jar. On a giveaway by a teammate, the Guatemalan American sprinted back and prevented a finish into the open net, his spectacular kick save keeping the score at 1-1. It marked one of several outstanding stops by Orozco in the period.

The third quarter was similarly contested as the previous two. With both sides continuing in their scrappy ways, Empire nearly took the lead when Mounir Alami laid the ball off to streaking backline anchor Palmer, whose first-time hit from just beyond the top of the arc forced netminder Toth to leave his feet and tip it over. It would be the Sockers finding the net at the other end, Morales pouncing on a rough touch by Andy Reyes to give his side a 2-1 advantage.

The game’s wild final period saw San Diego quickly extend its lead from one to four. After Charlie Gonzalez tallied from Sebastian Mendez, De Oliveira set up Perera, followed by a Taylor Walter Bond tally to make it 5-1 on an assist by Gonzalez. To the Strykers’ credit, Head Coach Onua Obasi’s men refused to give up on the game, as they struck twice consecutively to make things interesting.

Having just come close with an effort off the underside of the crossbar, Ant Powell scored courtesy of a nice individual effort, collecting a pass from Palmer and cutting inside from the left before firing a low drive inside the near post. Mounir Alami then cut the deficit to 5-3 by smashing a volley into the net from a difficult angle on the right. The helper was credited to Steven Chávez.

Just as it seemed like Empire might be able to make a real push toward a late comeback, the Sockers took the air out of the building by adding the late insurance goal. With Strykers ‘keeper Orozco pushed up for a numerical advantage on attack, De Oliveira stole the ball inside his own half and calmly sent it across the length of the field and into the unguarded net, rounding out the final score at 6-3.

The Empire Strykers next host the St. Louis Ambush on Friday, December 19, followed by an away clash with the Tacoma Stars the very next day. Single-game tickets are available here. Information on season tickets can be found here.