Fullerton Men’s Soccer Team Learns All About Bad Breaks

The scar is still fresh, nearly 12 inches long, red and sore.

You don’t see the scar until Duncan Oughton takes off the protective hardware, specially made to protect his broken left arm.

Already the Cal State Fullerton men’s soccer team was missing its offensive spark. Junior Art Ramirez and his 16 points and his fierce competitiveness and his uncanny feel for the soccer pitch were all stuck on the bench, courtesy of a fractured clavicle. Ramirez, who is from Huntington Beach High School, was injured in a 3-1 Titan victory over Air Force last week.

Oughton, a junior from New Zealand, had returned to the field last weekend. It was a month ago, in Fullerton’s 4-2 victory over Loyola Marymount, when Oughton had his arm broken.

“There’s a plate and six screws in it,” Oughton said Sunday afternoon, just after the Titans (14-5) had suffered a devastating 2-1 overtime loss to UCLA in front of a crowd of 2,962 at UCLA. The Bruins are ranked No. 2 in the country (Duke is No. 1) and the Titans are 13th. This game made UCLA (15-1) the winner of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Pacific Division. Fullerton, second in the division, now sits a week and waits to hear whether it will get an NCAA tournament invitation.

UCLA will play Washington, the MPSF Mountain Division winner, at Washington on Wednesday to determine the conference champion. Should the Bruins beat Washington, they would have to play the winner of the Mid-Continent Conference next weekend to earn an automatic NCAA invitation. Win or lose, the Bruins will get an NCAA bid, automatic or at-large. The Titans must sit on the dreaded bubble.

If Fullerton gets stiffed, and Coach Al Mistri notes that “you never know with the NCAA,” then Oughton is going to have a broken heart more painful than that broken arm.

About four minutes into the first 15-minute sudden death overtime period, Oughton found himself alone, with the ball on his toe and UCLA goalie Nick Rimando at his mercy. Was it nerves or pain or just exhaustion? Oughton doesn’t know. “I just struck the ball poorly,” Oughton said afterward.

About a minute later, UCLA’s Sasha Victorine scored the sudden-death winner.

Oughton held his left arm carefully with his right arm. It had been broken, he said, when he had slid and fell in front of the Loyola Marymount goalie. “The goalie went to kick the ball and he got my arm,” Oughton said.

With his team-leading 21 points (even after missing six games), it is not usual for Oughton to miss such an open shot. But near the end of regulation, Oughton had bent over and been sick on the field. It is not easy running and running and running when you are carrying a plate, six screws and a team’s dreams.

Regulation had been filled with bumping, bruising, pounding play.

Nobody scored in the first half or the first 22 minutes of the second.

It was the Bruins, who own three NCAA titles, the most recent in 1997, who scored first when senior Martin Bruno, on a corner kick, sent a high ball toward the Fullerton goal. Freshman Scot Thompson leaped as if sprung from a pogo stick, to head the ball past Titan goalie Scott Alexander.

Less than two minutes later, Fullerton’s Ricky Melendez slammed in the tying goal.

Melendez ripped off his shirt in celebration.

Thompson, six feet and 174 pounds, is one of three Orange County players who have helped the Bruins to this outstanding season.

Ryan Futagaki, a sophomore from Fountain Valley, has matured into a full-time starter with the help of a summer of play with the U.S. National Under-23 team.

He has seven points this season. Tim Pierce, a red-shirt freshman from Santa Margarita High, is a solid passer and smart positioner on the field.

But Thompson seems to have the skills and the flair to be a star.

Thompson’s father, Ancel, an engineer, was born in England and didn’t move to the United States until he was 20. “Soccer is in my dad’s blood and in mine,” says Thompson, who took three shots and nearly scored a second goal as well. Thompson spent the summer as part of the U.S. 18-under team, an honor that the shy 18-year-old says “means, I think, that I’m in the pool of players that somebody thinks is pretty good.”

Yes, Thompson said, Fullerton recruited him. “But I really only considered UCLA,” Thompson said. “Nobody else. It’s where I want to be.”

An honor student and member of the band and choir in high school, Thompson most admires D.C. United star Eddie Pope. Like Pope, Thompson is African-American. Thompson was also a track star at Trabuco Hills High, but always and only considered himself a soccer player.

Happy and healthy, Thompson signed autographs for dozens of kids. He thanked each of them for coming to the game and accepted their congratulations and wishes of good luck in the NCAA tournament with a little smile and a nod of his head.

Certainly, no matter what happens in that game against Washington or the possible game against the Mid-Continent winner, UCLA will be in the NCAA tournament.

Nothing is certain for the Titans. Oughton and his aching arm walked slowly off the field. “Personally, it will be a travesty if we don’t get a [tournament] bid,” were Oughton’s last words.

Thompson looked toward the departing Fullerton players and said, “Yes, they deserve to be in the [NCAA] tournament.”

Easy for Thompson to say.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com