September 12, 2007

Tough to get past this Irvine goalie
By JANIS CARR
The Orange County Register

The memory comes flying at Pat Barton like a hard-kicked soccer ball.

“It was the last game of the spring season. It was really bad. Very, very, very bad,” Barton said. “I tried to go too fast and it went right past me.”

Barton wasn’t talking about a bird or plane, but the last time a soccer ball got past the UC Irvine goalkeeper’s outreached hands during a game.

“It was quite an easy goal,” Barton said.

That flashback is perhaps the reason Barton hasn’t allowed a goal in three matches this season. He had six saves in the No. 20 Anteaters' 3-0 shutout against Cal State Bakersfield on Monday, and 14 saves overall with a 0.00 goals-against average.

“To be a good goalkeeper, you have to be the craziest on the field,” Barton said. “It’s a prerequisite. You have to have a screw loose.

“Why? Because being a goalie is the most stressful position on the field. If you make a mistake, everyone knows how many you make. In other positions, let’s say you make a bad pass, no one really notices it. You have to find a way to get over it.”

Barton, a red-shirt freshman from Atlanta, Ga., has been acting crazy for most of his soccer career. In high school, the 6-foot-2 goalie posted 36 shutouts and a 0.86 goals against average over four years and still remembers the final goal he gave up in high school.

Crazier still was how Barton landed in Irvine.

He originally decided to play soccer at Vanderbilt, but three days after applications closed, the school dropped its men’s soccer program because of Title IX restrictions. So, Barton looked to Georgia Tech, where he was going to walk on the football team as a kicker.

Out of the blue, Anteaters coach George Kuntz called and asked him if he would rather play soccer than football.

“I said I would love to,” Barton said.

ACROSS THE COUNTY

Cal State Fullerton goalkeeper Brent Douglass is having an equally impressive start, having shutout the Titans’ first three opponents before suffering a head injury against Michigan last week.

The Titans (3-1) ended up losing the game, 4-0. They return to action this weekend against Penn and Ohio State in a tournament at UCLA.

ONE-MAN SHOW … ALMOST

Senior Reid Tomassi scored seven goals in Long Beach State’s 19-5 water polo victory against Pomona-Pitzer last Sunday, the second-highest total in school history.

Tomassi missed tying the record by one, set by Jeff Colyer in 1996. Tomassi scored six goals three years ago against UC Santa Barbara.

The 49ers (4-0) head to the NorCal Tournament this weekend, along with Irvine (1-0).

BABY STEPS

It was only one game, a small step in the overall scheme of the season, but Irvine’s women’s volleyball team took a giant leap last week.

The Anteaters took a game off fifth-ranked UCLA for the first time in school history before succumbing in four games to the Bruins.

Irvine takes an 8-2 record into the Wildcat Classic at Arizona, where the Anteaters open against Davidson on Friday.

GARAGE SALE

Here’s a chance to own a piece of Cal State Fullerton history. The department of intercollegiate athletics is holding a “used gear” equipment sale Saturday in the Titan House as part of the school’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.