CSUN’s Authority Figure : Soccer: Midfielder Terry Davila gives the playoff-bound Matadors a hard-nosed enforcer.

By his own count, Terry Davila was suspended from school at least three times a year from the time he entered fourth grade until he completed his sophomore year of high school.

Twice, and almost a third time, he was kicked out of schools. He fought. He was rowdy.

But, in his mind, he always was right.

“I hated authority,” Davila says. “I thought I was an authority.”

Watch Davila play soccer and you see many of the same traits.

Davila is animated, aggressive and so confident that he seems to dribble the ball with a swagger. With battle-scarred legs and a soiled uniform, he is easy enough to spot.

“Terry is our dirtiest player,” Cal State Northridge Coach Marwan Ass’ad says with admiration. “Look at him after a game. . . . Look at his shirt, his legs, his knees. He gives us all he has to give.”

The same holds true off the field, as the energy Davila long struggled to control seems finally to be channeled in the proper direction.

“I was a great student in the 11th and 12th grades when I found out I had to be,” Davila says. “I wanted to go to college and play soccer at Northridge. I’ve always wanted to come here. When I was 15 and I would come and just watch the team practice. There were so many great players.”

Davila, a sophomore, can be counted among them. As a freshman, he started at sweeper for a team that advanced to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division II championship. This season he starts at midfielder and has played a key role in the Matadors’ advance to Saturday’s West regional final against Cal State Hayward at North Campus Stadium.

Two weeks ago, when Northridge clinched its sixth consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship, Davila was involved in the key play.

With CSUN and Bakersfield knotted, 1-1, in a match that would decide the CCAA title and the recipient of the conference’s automatic playoff berth, Davila took a pass at the left side of the 18-yard box, dribbled in, turned his back toward the goal to position himself for a pass, and drew a tripping call that resulted in a penalty shot that was converted by Don Imamura with 23 seconds left.

“That’s him,” Ass’ad says, recalling the play. “He hits it right before you tackle him. He’s so quick. Boom, he hits it.”

Davila, who has three goals and an assist, has extra incentive to perform well during the playoffs. His younger brother, Teddy, a freshman defender, has been sidelined because of a broken left leg.

“It really broke my heart when I saw him get hurt,” Terry says. “I wanted to share our great season with him. Before a game I can still feel his excitement and it gets me going that much harder.”

Terry also has been battered and bruised at times this season, but he has managed to play through it.

Against San Diego State, a highly ranked Division I team, Ass’ad planned to rest Davila, who had a severely bruised leg. But Davila, who had been snubbed in recruiting by San Diego State, would have none of it.

Says Ass’ad: “Terry says, ‘Coach, I’m ready.’ I said, ‘You’re not going to play.’ ”

Not satisfied with his coach’s answer, Davila sent a barrage of trainers, assistant coaches and teammates to plead his case.

“So I don’t start him, but I put him in later and he hurts his toe,” Ass’ad says. “The next day I pull him aside and say, ‘You know, you . . . me off. You shouldn’t have played.’

“It’s great to have a player like that. He’s hungry, you know? Aggressive.”

Davila credits his father, Tony, CSUN’s women’s tennis coach, for that characteristic.

“He’s the one who taught me to go hard,” Terry says. “He always said, ‘If you’re going to get hit, hit the other guy harder because then you won’t get hurt.’ ”

However, it is Ass’ad who Davila credits with changing his life.

“I respect him totally,” Davila says of his coach. “Every decision he’s made concerning me and our team has been the right one. I listen to Marwan and he guides me.

“I just give it all I’ve got. I respect Northridge, the tradition. That’s why I try to act the best I can, because I’m wearing the Northridge uniform.”