After a Stumble, Stag Soccer Team Rumbles : Colleges: After losing its opener, Claremont College has won nine matches.

For a program that has had made strong finishes a habit, the Claremont College men’s soccer team is equally predictable when it comes to stumbling starts.

The Stags, who have made seven NCAA Division III playoff appearances in 11 years, lost their season opener in September to Southern California College, a competitive but hardly dynastic member of the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics. Since then, Claremont has gone nine matches without a defeat.

“That’s not unusual,” said Steve Davis, who is in his 24th season as coach of the Stags. “If you looked at our record in openers since I’ve been here, we’re probably under .500.

“Against Southern California College, we looked like a team playing its first game. They looked like a team playing its third or fourth.”

Claremont is handicapped somewhat by a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rule that prevents teams from practicing before Sept. 1. The late start makes for early trouble.

But no opponent is feeling sorry for Claremont, which has won or shared 11 consecutive conference championships. Last year, the Stags finished 15-5 and tied Cal Lutheran for the SCIAC title. Cal Lutheran was awarded a berth to the playoffs because it had won a late-season game against the Stags, who had defeated Cal Lutheran earlier.

This season, the Stags are 8-1-1 and 3-0 in the SCIAC. They entered Wednesday’s game against Whittier with six consecutive shutouts, including a 4-0 victory on the road against UC San Diego, the defending Division III national champion.

Davis, a philosophy professor, is not surprised.

“I’ve seen this coming for a couple of years,” he said. “This is a veteran team with a lot of juniors and seniors.”

And several outstanding sophomores.

Goalkeeper Tyler Snow, for example, has emerged as one of the best at his position in Division III. Snow, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound graduate of Diamond Bar High, also pitches for the Stags’ baseball team.

“This is a much better team than last year,” said Snow, who became the Stags’ starting goalkeeper about a third of the way through the 1991 season. “We have a better attitude and we’re a lot more confident. We’re just better all around.”

So is Snow, who did not begin playing goalie until his sophomore year in high school. Davis said the makings of an outstanding keeper were evident when he observed Snow at Diamond Bar.

“When I went to see him play, I saw somebody with all the physical tools,” Davis said. “He was athletic and agile. I found out he had only been a goalkeeper for three years. I saw a lot of potential, but it needed to be channeled into the right direction.”

Snow has benefited from the presence of experienced players such as senior sweeper Jon Byers, a first-team Division III All-American. Senior halfback Chad Noyes and senior forward Steve Barbrich also lend leadership.

Sophomore midfielder Greg Keyes and sophomore forward Pat Gorgue, along with Snow, provide the Stags with talent for two more years after this season.

“We’ve got an incredibly deep bench,” said Byers, who was the SCIAC player of the year last season. “You can bring three or four guys off the bench and not lose any firepower.”

Claremont made its only appearance in the NCAA Division III championship game in 1983, when the Stags lost to North Carolina Greensboro, 3-2, at Greensboro, N.C.

Davis said this year’s team is capable of returning to the final.

“Doing as well as the 1983 team, or even better, is within the realm of possibility,” Davis said. “In the playoffs, luck and random events come into play. But I definitely think that going that far is within the capacity of this team.”