NCAA SOCCER PLAYOFFS : Titans Will Be Challenged by San Francisco

Cal State Fullerton will try to keep its hopes alive in the NCAA soccer playoffs today when the Titans play San Francisco, a team with a rich soccer tradition, at 1 p.m. in a second-round match in Titan Stadium.

The Titans (13-6-2) will be making their second consecutive appearance at home in the playoffs. Fullerton won its NCAA opener last weekend, 3-1 in overtime, against San Diego.

Today’s game could be Fullerton’s final home appearance of the season, win or lose. The winner of the Fullerton-San Francisco game will face the winner of the game between top-ranked Indiana (20-2) and Creighton (15-4-1) next weekend at a site to be determined Monday by the NCAA.

“San Francisco is a tough, well-disciplined team, so we’ll have to play well to win,” Titan Coach Al Mistri said. “They have been prominent in college soccer for a long time.”

The Dons (10-6-3) are coached by Stephen Negoesco, whose teams have reached the NCAA playoffs 25 times his 33 years as coach. San Francisco has won four NCAA titles in the sport, the last in 1980.

San Francisco has eight starters back from the team Fullerton eliminated, 1-0, in the third round of the playoffs last year. Striker Staale Soebye and goalkeeper Scott Thompson are key players. Soebye has 15 goals in 18 games and Thompson has allowed 19 goals in 17 games and has 69 saves.