Wilson Is the Emperors’ Favorite Son : Soccer: Former Cal State Dominguez Hills goalie is being credited with turning around California’s season.

When goalie Chris Wilson blocked what looked like a sure score by Dale Ervine of the Los Angeles Heat on July 1, he may have unknowingly turned around the season for the California Emperors.

It was a sensational play, one of six stops in the game by Wilson, and as the American Professional Soccer League West standings tighten, it looms as one of the biggest of the season.

“You won’t see a better play than that,” said Heat reserve goalie Marine Cano, who was Wilson’s coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Cano watched from the Heat bench as Wilson absorbed the full force of the powerful kick by Ervine. It staggered Wilson but did not get into the net.

The Heat went on to win the game on penalty kicks, 1-0, but because Wilson shut out Los Angeles through two overtime periods, he earned two points in the Southern Division standings for the last-place Emperors. California has won two consecutive games since and is the hottest team in the division.

In their past three games, the Emperors have picked up 14 points in the standings, moving to within 10 points of first place and only four behind the struggling fourth-place Heat.

This weekend, when the Emperors play New Mexico and Real Santa Barbara at California’s home field at the University of Redlands, as little as a split could lift the Emperors, an expansion team, out of the cellar for the first time this year. The APSL awards six points for a win and one point for each goal scored.

According to Emperor Coach Rildo Menezes, much of his team’s turnaround should be credited to Wilson.

“He has helped pull our game together,” said Menezes, a first-year coach from Brazil. “He has given our team confidence. He has shown the players that they can win, that they can score more goals, because we have a good defense behind them.”

Cat-quick, Wilson made two stops in the box in a 2-1 victory over San Diego on July 7. But the one in Torrance against Ervine was a classic.

The Heat had a half-dozen players around the Emperor goal, barraging the net. Wilson had punched several shots back out when Ervine slipped into the box about 10 yards out. Wilson was near the left goal post when Ervine fired a full volley down the middle. Somehow, Wilson got in front of it.

“It was a great save,” said Heat Coach Bobby Sibbald, who coached Wilson on a top club team, Torrance United. “He has tremendous reflexes. He’s played two great games against us.”

In the teams’ first meeting, on a warm and humid night in Redlands on May 5, Wilson played a torrid game, taking the Heat into overtime with nine saves before his team lost, 1-0.

“There have been few surprises,” Wilson said. “I am new to the league, and I expect to be tested.”

He has allowed only 17 goals this year, although the Emperors have generally been outshot 2 to 1.

Wilson has stood other tests as well. He was a two-time All-California Collegiate Athletic Assn. goalkeeper, instrumental in the Toros’ tie for the CCAA title in 1988. He was voted all-Western Region that season. He holds school records for fewest goals allowed (1.43 a game), career shutouts (22) and season shutouts (seven).

But his biggest test may have been his first season at Dominguez Hills in 1986. Cano recruited two other goalkeepers because he wasn’t sure that Wilson, a graduate of West Torrance, would cut it.

“I was a little bit nervous about him at first,” Cano said. “I wanted a quick fix right away, a guy who could start all four years for me. Chris was not the tallest goalkeeper around.”

Wilson is listed at 6 feet tall by the Emperor media guide but admits to being a bit shorter.

Cano said he stayed with Wilson on a hunch.

“I saw a little bit of myself in him,” Cano said, “He has developed into a top-notch goalkeeper.”

Wilson, who has developed a good friendship with Cano, refused to draw comparisons between the two. “But I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for Marine,” he said.

Wilson, who lives in Torrance, was signed this spring to a full-time contract with the Emperors, which means that he commutes daily to Redlands for practice. It is the best of both worlds, he said, despite the 1-hour, 45-minute drive.

“I can’t complain,” Wilson said. “I’m getting paid to play soccer, and I’m making enough to live on. I wouldn’t want to be making this (salary) for ever, but I am young and I’m living comfortably.”

Menezes says he has been impressed with the effort Wilson puts into training, despite commuting from the South Bay.

If there is a knock on Wilson, it is that he has only average ability on crossing passes. But Wilson defends himself. “Any (goal) keeper in the world--just look at some of the World Cup games--is not very good at crosses,” he said.

Sibbald said most U.S.-born goalies play crosses worse than foreign-born goalies, perhaps because many fields here are not as wide as in other countries.

However, Menezes says Wilson has improved greatly. “He is very quick on the low ball,” the coach said. “We have been working on his crosses. We have been working with him on that every day.”

Wilson sees the goalkeeper as a field marshal, in charge of the game, but he is also realistic.

“You have to be composed,” he said. “A goalie should be consistent, but you have to understand that it’s just a matter of time before you are scored on. If I can come up with a couple of big saves (at the right time in the game), than I am doing my job.”

Wilson, according to the box scores, has done his job more than once this season.