Soccer Team’s Soto Still Seeking His Level

Eddie Soto was always ahead of the game when it came to soccer.

He dominated competition at Cerritos High School, where he scored more than 100 goals over four years. As a 15-year-old sophomore, he started on the North Huntington Beach Untouchables, an elite 19-and-under club team that included such standouts as Rhett Harty and Mike Lapper, who played on the U.S. Olympic team at the Summer Games.

Many of his peers collected only high school varsity letters, but Soto also played on two junior national teams and in the 1990 U.S. Olympic Festival.

But this season, Soto found himself in an uncustomary mode: playing catch-up.

Soto spent last season at Chapman, where the action at the Division II level was a little slower and a little less physical. He had 16 goals and nine assists in 16 games but found he wasn’t always challenged by the level of competition.

So he transferred to Cal State Fullerton, where he has elevated his game to match the Division I competition. The sophomore forward has nine goals and one assist in nine games and is the No. 2 goal-scorer in the NCAA’s Far West Region. He has led the Titans to a 7-2 record, 1-0 in the Mountain Pacific Soccer Federation.

“Whenever you play against someone better, it brings the best out of you,” Soto said. “I used Division II as a learning experience, but Division I is exactly how I thought it’d be, which is fast. It’s also a lot more physical, but I’m used to it.”

Soto was recruited by several Division I schools out of high school--including national-power UCLA--but his failure to meet the NCAA’s Proposition 48 requirements prevented most schools from signing him.

He considered playing community college soccer but opted for Chapman because an older brother, Fabrizio, once played for the Panthers. Soto sat out his first year (1990) and played last season, but he had already decided to transfer long before the school announced last spring that it would be dropping to Division III.

“It was always my dream to play Division I soccer, and I planned on leaving after my sophomore year anyway,” Soto said. “At that level, I wasn’t getting seen by national and Olympic coaches like I wanted to.”

He’s more recognized now. Fullerton Coach Al Mistri said Rick Davis, general manager of the American Professional Soccer League’s expansion Los Angeles Salsa, has shown great interest in Soto. He thinks Soto has the potential to play for the U.S. national team.

“We haven’t had a guy score at this pace since Mike Fox (the Titans’ only All-American, who scored 28 goals from 1981-82). “And our schedule is significantly stronger now than when Mike played.”

Soto is often double-teamed in the penalty box but has developed a knack for being in the right place at the right time--several of his goals have come on rebounds.

“You have to feel comfortable around the box, and I’ve developed little secrets over the years to stay calm,” Soto said. “A lot of forwards get nervous and try to hide themselves from the game, but I love being in that situation. I see goal-scoring as my job--an occupation that I get paid for--and if I don’t score, they should fire me.”

Local angle: Fullerton Athletic Director Bill Shumard said he won’t begin an official search for a new football coach until school President Milton A. Gordon determines whether the Titans will remain Division I-A, drop to a I-AA cost-containment conference or be eliminated altogether.

That decision isn’t expected until after the season, Gene Murphy’s last as coach, but Shumard has begun formulating ideas on what the candidate pool should look like.

Among the important ingredients will be head-coaching experience, proven administrative skills, an ability to work within a budget and contacts with Orange County high schools and community colleges.

Very few Orange County players have attended Fullerton in recent years, and that seems to be one of Shumard’s concerns.

“I want someone who is familiar with Orange County and well-respected here,” Shumard said. “It could be someone who has coached or recruited here.”

Sitting in: Athletic directors from the Western Football Conference, which will move from Division II to a Division I-AA cost-containment conference next season, will meet Friday in San Jose, and Shumard will be among those in attendance.

But Shumard said he will be more of an observer than a participant and that his presence is not a definitive indicator of the Titans’ future plans.

Administrators from 8-10 schools, including Cal State Northridge, Cal State Sacramento, Southern Utah, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UC Davis, St. Mary’s and Santa Clara, will meet in an effort to finalize their conference model, which will feature limits on scholarships and coaching staffs.

“My job is to look at all the options at this point in time,” Shumard said. “I want to clarify what those options are.”

Injury report: Fullerton was so beaten up after Saturday’s 19-0 loss to Nevada that Murphy canceled practice Sunday. The most serious casualty was inside linebacker Lorenzo Hailey, who suffered a partial tear of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee and will be out for three to five weeks.

Cornerback Darrius Watson, free safety Al Whitten and reserve defensive lineman Keone Simon all suffered ankle injuries and are questionable for Saturday’s game at San Jose State. Linebacker Mike Simmons, who plays on all of the Titans’ special teams, suffered a concussion but should return this week.

Titan Notes

Fullerton has been outscored, 104-3, in its past three games, the worst scoring slump in school history. The previous low over a three-game span was 17 points, which occurred twice in 1982. . . . Titan Coach Gene Murphy, when asked by KMPC’s Jim Lampley Monday morning whether he had been thinking much about the 1983 and ’84 seasons, when Fullerton went 7-5 and 11-1, won a conference championship and cracked the UPI national rankings: “That’s all I’ve been thinking about lately.” . . . Murphy, when told that one of the announcers for Saturday’s SportsChannel telecast of the San Jose State-Fullerton game would be former Nevada Las Vegas Coach Harvey Hyde, whose Rebels edged Fullerton for the 1984 conference title but later forfeited the victory because it used several players who hadn’t graduated from high school: “I’m not talking to anybody from SportsChannel. Anyone who uses kids, I want nothing to do with them.” . . . Freshman gymnast Natalie Meyer might be out for the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee during practice.