Legends complete series sweep, advance to PASL playoff semis

When searching for the best place to host a bachelor party, Tijuana, Mexico, is a contender for the crown, but Las Vegas is the undisputed champion.

The same can be said of the cities’ Professional Arena Soccer League playoff series.

The expansion Las Vegas Legends cruised past the Mexico Toros 10-4 on Sunday at Orleans Arena to finish a two-game sweep of their PASL Ron Newman Cup quarterfinal series.

The Legends (15-3), who won the regular-season Southwest Division title by six games over the Toros (7-11), outlasted Mexico 10-8 on Saturday in San Diego in their playoff opener.

Las Vegas will advance to the league semifinals March 10 against the three-time defending PASL champion San Diego Sockers (17-1), who swept their quarterfinal series against the Turlock Express (9-9) — winning 12-11 in overtime Saturday and 13-4 Sunday at the Orleans.

“To end the season at home with a win heading to the championship series is impressive for a first-year team,” Legends coach Greg Howes said. “We’ve come a long way.”

Ricardo Sobreira — an electric 5-foot-7-inch, 130-pound Brazilian known as Ricardinho — scored his second straight hat trick Sunday and had six goals and three assists in the series.

“Ricky’s a good player, and I challenged him at the end of the year, that big players step up and score in big games,” Howes said.

Ricardinho, who was fourth in the league in scoring with 50 points (22 goals, 28 assists), does most of his talking on the field, but said he’s surprised the team has made it this far.

“We didn’t expect that, and now we’ll probably go to the championship,” he said. “It’s amazing.”

Franck Tayou had two goals Sunday — giving him three goals and an assist in the series — and Enrique Tovar supplied a goal and an assist, giving him three goals and two assists in the series.

Tovar was second in the league in scoring during the regular season with 57 points on 24 goals and a PASL single-season record 33 assists.

“All of our go-to guys played big the last two games,” Howes said.

Leading 2-0 at halftime, the Legends broke it open in a dominant third quarter, exploding for five goals — two shorthanded — to take a 7-1 lead.

Goalie Zeke Sanchez made the score stand up.

“We’ve had great goalkeeping the last two nights. All year, that’s one of the biggest reasons we’ve been successful,” Howes said. “We’re also one of the league’s top-scoring teams. We’re balanced. If the guys can bring their confidence, we’re tough to handle.”

San Diego stunned Las Vegas 6-5 on Jan. 18 at Orleans Arena when the Sockers scored with 2.2 seconds remaining. San Diego ran its U.S. professional team sports winning streak to 48 games this season before losing to the Dallas Sidekicks.

Howes said the Legends are looking forward to a rematch.

“I know the guys will be hungry for that,” he said. “It’s a big day for us today to get to the final four because in playoff sports anything can happen, so we’re looking to go to San Diego to make something happen.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.