Dominguez Coach Hails CCAA Soccer but Boos Officiating

The level of soccer in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. has gotten so good, says Cal State Dominguez Hills Coach Marine Cano, that it has left the officiating behind.

“Northridge, year in and year out, is probably as good as any Division I team,” Cano said. “Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is right there. Dominguez Hills has made the step up to the next level. Pomona and Bakersfield have some quality players. Even (last-place) Chapman is tough because it has a good coach.

“The quality is there in the league. The games are getting so much better. We need a higher quality of officials.”

As his team prepared to play Chapman on Wednesday, Cano was still irritated by an official’s call that cost his team a victory and the conference lead Saturday at San Luis Obispo.

The Toros and San Luis Obispo played to a 1-1 tie in overtime. Toro freshman Rich Gabaldon scored the apparent game-winning goal in the extra period, but the middle official called an offside penalty against Dominguez Hills and disallowed the goal. The tie left the Toros tied with Northridge for the CCAA lead.

Cano, who isn’t protesting the game, has filed a complaint with the conference’s head of officials and feels the call may have been influenced by the large crowd at San Luis Obispo.

“I’m getting so used to it . . . . I try not to use (officiating) as an excuse, but we’ve had the same guy in the middle for three years in three key games and he’s back-stabbed us three times. On the major decisions I think we’re just not getting what we deserve.”

But, Cano conceded, “it could’ve been worse. We could have lost. It (conference race) is in our hands, still.”

Of the offsides ruling he said: “It is a judgment call. I have no legs to stand on other than to make a complaint to the head of officials. (But) it was as legitimate a goal as you’ll ever see. You could tell (Cal Poly) thought it was a good goal, because when (the officials) reversed the call, they reacted like it was the World Cup.

“I think (the official) got swayed by the crowd. It’s not easy to officiate. It was not an easy game to officiate. But when I look at officials I think of the word integrity . The crowd shouldn’t be part of it, and I felt it may have been.”

The Toros complete the regular season at home Saturday against Cal State Bakersfield. The conference champion will qualify for NCAA Division II playoffs. Cano said he has tried to put last weekend’s game behind him and told his team: “There’s no excuse. We just have to win the rest of our games. I told them they have to learn to deal with adversity.”

But he added: “I told the head of officials if that guy shows up at any more of our games I won’t let our guys take the field.”

Add soccer: After Dominguez Hills goalie Chris Wilson stopped a penalty kick by Cal State Northridge scoring leader Steve Lazarus last week, a scan of this season’s stat sheets showed Wilson has a remarkable 80% success rate blocking penalty kicks. He has stopped four of five attempts. He was in the goal Wednesday night in a 2-0 shutout of Chapman.

At the West Coast Athletic Conference’s basketball media day this week at Loyola Marymount, Lions star forward Hank Gathers said he can tell the high-scoring team made an impression on fans. He said one night in a supermarket near campus, “I was just standing in line and a guy said, ‘Hank Gathers, right? LMU? We gonna have a good team?’ That’s happening a lot. Last weekend I was with (UCLA star) Pooh Richardson and we had a guy along who was being recruited by UCLA. I was at Pooh’s apartment and the kid started asking me about our program. The guy wanted to know what was going on (at Loyola). Pooh said, ‘I’m gonna have to quit bringing you along.’ ”

Coach Paul Westhead said he has gotten similar man-on-the-street comments and said it was “absolutely” unexpected. “It’s nice when (sportscaster) Dick Vitale says they’re a good team,” Westhead said. “But this was people off the street, people I didn’t know who saw the game on the tube at Joe’s Bar and Grill. Apparently (Loyola’s style) kind of blew their mind. Once we got on national TV, people were coming up to me (saying) ‘You were coach of that crazy team.’ Some people had never seen basketball like that.”

Westhead has found himself in constant demand for clinics and has appeared recently from Alabama and North Carolina to Minnesota and Canada. “They want to hear the charm of the system,” he said, adding with a laugh, “Unfortunately there’s no charm. Just a lot of work.”

In an unusual gesture of sympathy, the University of Portland team dedicated its WCAC cross-country victory last weekend to the memory of Ethan Palo, a runner for the University of San Francisco who was killed that week in an auto accident.

During the awards ceremony at Crystal Springs Park outside San Francisco, Portland team captain Sean Messiter took the microphone and said: “I thought about (Palo) last night, this morning and during the race. I thought how he’d probably been looking forward to this race and how it could just as easily have been me or anyone else. I’m thankful to be able to run today and tomorrow. I’ll never take my running for granted again.”

College Notes

The father of Loyola basketball player Marcus Slater was killed in an auto collision Sunday when his parents’ car was hit head-on by a suspected drunk driver going the wrong way on a freeway ramp. Slater’s mother was taken to Long Beach Memorial Hospital in critical condition but is now stable and is expected to recover . . . Cal State Dominguez Hills basketball center Anthony Blackmon is listed in the Sporting News basketball preview as one of the nation’s top 20 small-college players. Blackmon is one of only two West Coast players, and the only Southern Californian, honored . . . The Cal Poly San Luis Obispo football team is in the running for a playoff game thanks in part to the play of defensive lineman Tom Carey. Through eight games the Miraleste High graduate leads the Mustangs with 12 1/2 sacks and is second with 53 tackles . . . Santa Clara sophomore Julie Jamile was named WCAC volleyball player of the week for the second time this season. In victories over Loyola and Pepperdine last weekend, the Torrance native totaled 107 assists, 32 digs, 5 blocks and 4 service aces . . . The Athletes in Action basketball team that plays at Pepperdine on Saturday includes former Loyola star Forrest McKenzie. AIA plays at Loyola on Dec. 10.