Gonzalez in Charge on Field

Stephen Gonzalez lay beneath the goal posts at Newport Harbor High, rolling from side to side and kicking and squirming.

Moments earlier, Gonzalez, kicking for Orange in his first varsity football game in September, had sent a punt high out of the end zone just as the opponents converged around him. He’d clenched his teeth, closed his eyes and prepared for impact.

Then he did what any good soccer player would do: he faked a nasty collision. After all, there was no time to panic, just a split second to improvise.

The ruse worked. Newport Harbor was penalized for roughing the kicker, Orange got a first down, and Gonzalez kept all his teeth.

It was vintage Gonzalez, just another way to help his team win. “We were in the end zone and we needed to get out,” he said.

Gonzalez’s adventures in football have ended and he’s returned to a place he feels more comfortable, controlling the midfield for Orange’s top-ranked boys’ soccer team.

“Football can be pretty nerve-racking, especially the field goals,” Gonzalez said. “Soccer is definitely my sport. I get a lot more pumped up out there.”

Gonzalez’s intensity is a key element in the Panthers’ success. Orange Coach Kevin Esparza notices a difference when he’s on the field.

“He provides a lot of leadership and his presence is just as valuable as his skills,” Esparza said. “Stephen can take over the game with his attitude alone. Having him on the field makes everyone more comfortable. He’s a man among boys at the high school level.”

Gonzalez, a first-team all-county selection last season, has also taken some initiative off the field. He pulled his teammates together before the season began to remind them of the Panthers’ disastrous start last season.

Orange also was chosen No. 1 in preseason rankings, but lost, 3-0, in the season-opener against Edison, and then fell apart the next weekend at the Long Beach Millikan tournament. The team had grown overconfident and believed they just had to show up to win games, Gonzalez said.

It was a brief lapse. The Panthers climbed back into the rankings and then won the Division II championship with a 1-0 victory over Compton Dominguez.

“We brought the team together before this season and said we can’t let what happened to us last season happen again,” Gonzalez said. “We have to learn from our mistakes last year because that really hurt us at the time.”

The Panthers already have shown they are good listeners. They opened the season with a 1-0 victory over Edison last Wednesday and then recorded two consecutive shutout victories on Saturday in the opening rounds of the Millikan Tournament.

Gonzalez has been kept fairly quiet thus far, but he knows his chances will arrive. He prefers to play the sideline and patiently wait for an opportunity to make a run for the goal. His strong left foot enables him to cross the ball into the middle with force and accuracy, and he’s equally dangerous charging into the box from the weak side and scoring off headers.

“I like to play really wide and sneak around,” Gonzalez said. “Sometimes I won’t get the ball much and the coach will tell me to move into the middle and bring the ball up, but I’d rather be patient and just wait on the outside to make runs.”

Gonzalez won’t score many goals, leaving that to Genar Lopez and Victor Diaz, who was a Division II All-Southern Section selection last season. Gonzalez scored five goals last season, his biggest in the final minutes of the Southern Section quarterfinals.

He will provide immense leadership, however, play various offensive and defensive positions when needed, and “keep the rest of the guys in line.” That includes diverting a teammate’s anger toward him when an eruption is imminent.

“If two players are fouling each other, I’ll yell at the player and get him mad at me and then he’ll take his focus off the other player,” Gonzalez said. “I’d rather have him mad at me. That’s why I’ll do it.”