PROVING THEY BELONG : Despite a Losing Record Last Season and Facing Elimination as a Program, Matador Soccer Players Are Optomistic About 1997

If the Cal State Northridge men’s soccer team had a motto it might be “Faith without evidence.”

Here is a team that, a few months ago, actually ceased being a team. The program was temporarily dropped by Northridge administrators attempting to balance a budget while also meeting state-mandated, gender-equity requirements.

Here is a team that last year was 4-10-2, the worst record in the program’s 19-year history.

Here is a team whose top scorer last season had seven goals.

Yet here also is a team whose players fully expect substantial improvement, perhaps enough to challenge for an NCAA Division I playoff berth.

“We’re taking this season as a chance to show all the nonbelievers that [cutting the program] is not the right thing,” said sophomore forward Michael Preis.

Indeed, soccer’s reprieve at Northridge is, at present, a one-season gig. That season begins tonight at 5:30 against Grand Canyon, the defending Division II national champion, in a doubleheader at North Campus Stadium. Afterward, the same schools will meet in a women’s soccer match.

The Northridge men’s team finished tied for fourth in the six-team Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s Pacific Division last year. To have a realistic shot at postseason play, the Matadors need to win the division and defeat the Mountain Division representative in the conference title match.

Midfielder Danny Ortega, one of 19 local players on the team, views that as an attainable goal.

“In pretty much all of our games last season we dominated but didn’t score,” Ortega said. “If we had put those opportunities away we would have won.”

Woulda, coulda, shoulda, but Ortega is correct about the opportunities. Opponents took only 15 more shots than the Matadors last season but outscored them nearly two to one.

In an effort to correct that imbalance, Northridge has spent much of the preseason working on “finishing”--soccer parlance for scoring.

“Last year we learned how to move the ball, how to make crosses, how to make runs,” Coach Marwan Ass’ad said. “Now we don’t need to work on that stuff half the practice. Everything depends on finishing, so that’s all we’re working on.”

Ass’ad has had only two losing seasons in 14 years at Northridge but both have occurred in the past three years.

This year, his annual case of preseason optimism has been muted, but he maintains that increased familiarity between his players will result in better soccer.

“The difference is the players were together in [spring practice],” Ass’ad said. “They know each other’s intentions, where they’ll make a run, where they’ll send a pass.”

Seven starters return from last year’s midseason lineup, though not all retain their roles.

Preis, last season’s leading scorer and a 1996 All-MPSF selection, scored seven goals. Keith West led the 1995 Matadors with 20 goals and the team produced a winning record.

Nonetheless, Preis is a legitimate Division I standout and will team up front with classmate Daryl Mundy.

The sophomore trio of Ortega, Luis Castro and Federico Arroyo will occupy three of the four midfield positions.

The defense features three new faces and a retread. Sophomore Mark Fitzpatrick, a transfer from the Naval Academy, John Relles and Ante Bilaver are new starters and Danny Nishiyama, a freshman starter in 1995, returns after attending junior college last season.

Goalkeeper features a four-way battle for the starting role between returning players Victor Lopez and Jorge Buery and newcomers Christian Perez and Scott Stark.

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Cal State Northridge Men’s Soccer

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No. Player Pos. Yr. Hometown 1 Jorge Buery GK So. Chatsworth 2 Mark Fitzpatrick D So. Northridge 3 Aamon Ross MF Jr. Colorado Springs, Colo. 4 Michael Preis F So. Chatsworth 5 Brian Murray D Jr. Truckee 6 Albert Alvarez D Jr. Sun Valley 7 Trevor Schmidt MF Jr. Chatsworth 8 Luis Castro MF So. Lancaster 9 William Diaz F Fr. Los Angeles 10 Danny Ortega MF So. Van Nuys 11 John Relles D So. Woodland Hills 12 Santiago Giangrasso F Fr. Burbank 13 Ante Bilaver D Sr. Valley Village 14 Danny Nishiyama D. So. Quartz Hill 15 Basil Grant F Fr. Northridge 16 Federico Arroyo D So. Van Nuys 17 Jaime Tinajero MF Fr. Van Nuys 18 Oswaldo Pina Rivera MF So. Oxnard 19 Nat Krupansky D So. Newbury Park 20 Daryl Mundy D So. Ventura 21 Christian Perez GK Fr. Moorpark 22 Victor Lopez GK So. Redwood City 23 Scott Stark GK Fr. Northridge

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Schedule

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Date Opponent Time Today Grand Canyon 5:30 p.m. Sept. 5 Stanford [Nevada Las Vegas tournament] 9 p.m. Sept. 7 Gonzaga [Nevada Las Vegas tournament] 2 p.m. Sept. 11 San Diego State 7 p.m. Sept. 13 San Jose State 7 p.m. Sept. 19 at San Diego State 3 p.m. Sept. 21 Denver 6 p.m. Sept. 26 #Santa Clara 5 p.m. Sept. 28 San Francisco [Santa Clara tournament] 2:30 p.m. Oct. 3 *UC Santa Barbara 7 p.m. Oct. 5 *Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 6 p.m. Oct. 12 *UCLA 6 p.m. Oct. 17 *at UC Irvine 7 p.m. Oct. 19 *at Cal State Fullerton 4 p.m. Oct. 26 CSUN Alumni 6 p.m. Nov. 1 Master’s 7 p.m. Nov. 7 at California 3 p.m. Nov. 9 Sacramento State 6 p.m. Nov. 12 UC Irvine 7 p.m. Nov. 15 Loyola Marymount 7 p.m.

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* Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches