Toreros Keeping the Faith in Soccer Playoffs

This might shock anybody who hasn’t been keeping up with the NCAA Division I men’s soccer playoffs, but guess who’s playing the mighty UCLA Bruins in the West Region semifinals on Sunday?

The answer is also the only team that scored three goals against UCLA this season.

It is an area team--not San Diego State--loaded with area high school and junior college players, and is young enough to believe it can beat the boys from Westwood at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The University of San Diego?

Indeed.

After its best regular season and posting a 4-2 victory over host Portland in the Toreros’ first playoff game, USD (15-2-5) is in the final 16 and believes it can beat the one-time NCAA champion Bruins. UCLA has been to the playoffs nine times in the past 11 years, including six times as the region’s top-seeded team.

“We’re going to win. No doubt about it,” said Paul Gelvezon, the Toreros’ leading scorer with 12 goals.

USD is optimistic because in its third match of the season, with 18 first- and second-year players on its 27-man roster, the Toreros tied UCLA, then ranked third in the nation, 3-3. And that was after falling behind, 2-0, early in the contest.

USD was the only team to score three goals against UCLA and goalie Brad Friedel, who tied for sixth in the nation with an 0.67 goals-against average. Only one other team managed to score two--Rutgers handed UCLA (15-1-4) its only loss, 2-1, in mid-October.

With confidence gained from the UCLA game, the Toreros didn’t lose until the 11th game of the season, and that one--2-0 at San Francisco--was played in a dense fog that virtually eliminated any long kicks. USD’s other loss--2-0 in overtime--came at home against Santa Clara, which tied for the NCAA championship last year.

In Sunday’s playoff victory, Portland goalie Kasey Keller, a member of last summer’s U.S. World Cup team in Italy who is tied with Friedel in goals-against average, watched four Torero shots go past him for the first time in his college career.

USD has scored 59 goals this year and allowed 23, UCLA has scored 57 and allowed 15.

“I’m not intimidated by UCLA,” USD Coach Seamus McFadden said. “They have playoff experience, but my kids know they can take them.”

Until this season, McFadden might not have been as confident.

Before coming to USD in 1979, McFadden built successful soccer programs at Clairemont High and Mesa Community College.

Surely, he could do the same at USD, he thought. All he would need to do, he believed, was recruit some talented area players, condition them properly, set up some drills, and the postseason coaching honors would come rolling in.

The problem was, it is tough to recruit good players to a costly school such as USD without money. The Toreros offered no scholarships in 1979, had no recruiting budget and were about to begin their first season in Division I.

As expected, USD suffered through some horrendous early years, and McFadden was in dire need of an assist. He finally got one from Tom Iannacone, who took over as athletic director in the fall of 1988.

With a master plan to upgrade sports on campus, Iannacone gave two full scholarships to the soccer program in 1989, its first two. Suddenly, the Toreros became contenders, finishing 14-6-1 and missing the playoffs last year by one victory.

With another 1 1/2 scholarships added before this season, USD had an exceptional recruiting season and is now able to compete with the Portlands and UCLAs, schools that offer 11 scholarships each, the maximum allowed by the NCAA.

“It’s still the miracle of the loaves and the fish, but we do our best,” McFadden said. “To get the number of good players, you still have to partial up (split scholarships).”

McFadden’s original plan of recruiting top area players took a little longer than he expected, but with the added money, it’s becoming a viable project.

Eleven players on the team played for a San Diego high school or community college or both. Most have been integral parts of a high-scoring team that loves to attack.

Gelvezon (Mira Mesa High, Mesa College) has 12 goals and seven assists for a team-leading 31 points.

Leo Ronces (USDHS) and Chugger Adair (Hilltop, San Diego State) are next with 25 points. Both have eight goals and nine assists. Phillip Button (Bishop’s) and Toby Taitano (Valhalla) are tied for fourth with 23 points. Button has nine goals and five assists, Taitano four goals and a team-leading 15 assists. Tom Crane (Poway, Mesa) has six goals and six assists for 18 points.

Last year, Crane and Ronces led USD with 13 goals.

On defense, Alex Streicek (Mesa), Kevin Arthur (Poway) and Manny Rodriguez (San Diego High), have been outstanding.

“I’d like to tell you it was great coaching, but you’ve got to have great players,” McFadden said.

Before coming to USD, Streicek, Arthur, Taitano and Adair played for the highly successful San Diego Nomads club team, coached by UC San Diego’s Derek Armstrong. Button, Adair and Rodriguez are former San Diego Section players of the year.

And then there is freshman Tom Tate from USDHS.

Tate, who at 5-foot-8 is the shortest goalie in the West Coast Conference, won the job from two-year starter Doug Wedge during camp this year. Tate has done well, finishing the year fourth in the West Region with an 0.88 GAA.

“(Other teams) look at me and they don’t see me as being the goalie because of my height,” Tate said. “I try to make up for that in quickness and jumping ability.”

Tate was surprised he became the starter in his first year. “I came in thinking I was going to be a backup or redshirt,” he said. “I ended up doing really well in tryouts.”

Tate also credited the defensive players in front of him, especially two-time all-WCC selection senior sweeper Trong Nguyen.

“Trong made this year a whole lot easier in the transition from high school to college,” Tate said. “He’s really a steady player. Trong leads by example.”

Tate, like many of the Toreros, was nervous playing UCLA the first time. That, he said, is no longer the case.

“We’ve grown together and matured a lot as a team,” Tate said. “We’ll be fine (against UCLA). I think it will be a close match. I think it’ll be a battle of goalies.”