Medina finds sea legs at Sonoma St.

By: JOHN MAFFEI - Staff Writer | Tuesday, October 30, 2007 12:11 AM PDT ∞

Nathan Medina's No. 1 goal this season, as well as that of his Sonoma State men's soccer teammates, is to play for an NCAA Division II championship.

But the former Mt. Carmel High star and the rest of the Seawolves know they'll probably have to travel the same road as last season, a road that was filled with potholes.

After a fine 2006 regular season, Sonoma State lost in the first round of the California College Athletic Association tournament to Cal State Dominguez Hills, then the Seawolves were bounced out of the NCAA tournament in the first round by Seattle. Both were gut-wrenching, 2-1 defeats.

This season, both Medina and Sonoma State are enjoying great seasons.

The junior forward has 12 goals and four assists for a team that is 17-2-1, has won 16 matches in a row -- outscoring the opposition 45-12 in that span -- finished the conference season 14-0 and is ranked 11th in the nation, including No. 2 in the Far West behind Seattle.

"We're trying not to look too far ahead," Medina said. "But we know that somewhere down the road we're going to have to play Cal State Dominguez Hills and, hopefully, Seattle again.

"We're on a school-record winning streak, but that means nothing now. When you get to the postseason, streaks -- winning or losing -- mean nothing, because it's one and out.

"We just need to focus, play our game and see how far we can go."

Out of high school, Medina almost had nowhere to go.

Despite being an All-CIF San Diego Section first-team selection, his college options were limited.

"I didn't talked to many college coaches," Medina said. "They don't watch too many high school matches, and my club team wasn't very good.

"But Sonoma State called, I visitedÝ and fell in love with the place. The coaches were awesome and they had a lot of San Diego guys on the team.

"It seemed like a great fit."

Medina, a two-time conference player of the week this season, rewarded Sonoma State's coaches with a 14-goal freshman season.

He fell off to three goals last season, but has bounced back nicely in 2007.

"We're a very efficient team," Medina said. "We do a lot of the technical stuff very well.

"We're not just a boom-it-forward team. We keep the ball in play. We can't muscle it in.

"We work to find weaknesses in the defense, then we exploit them.

"We're fun to watch."

Medina, who ranks sixth all-time at Sonoma State in goals (29), seventh in points (68) and fourth in game-winning goals (ninth), is just one of several players on the Seawolves roster from the San Diego area.

Forward Michael Asaro (St. Augustine/Escondido resident) and midfielder Steve Browne (La Costa Canyon) play key roles, while defender Mike Duncan (Mt. Carmel) and forward Eric Lafon (Point Loma) are contributors as subs.

Browne has two goals and four assists while Asaro has six assists.

"We have a pretty good North County connection going," Medina said. "That's one of the reasons I chose to come here. And the coaches have fun with it. Sometimes in practice, we'll play SoCal-versus-NorCal just to keep things light."

Medina has now seen the light. He's a business/marketing major, and his grades are good.

He'd like to get into sports management after college, but he'd also like to try his hand at the professional game.

"I still have a year here, but the coaches have connections with pro clubs in Holland," Medina said. "That would be a great opportunity.

"That's a long way off, though. Before I can think about that, I want to play for an NCAA championship."

Dodging the fires

Oregon and Oregon State have a number of North County athletes in a number of sports. Nearly all their families were evacuated by the fires, though none lost their homes.

At Oregon the list included women's lacrosse players Jana Bradley (La Costa Canyon), Ann Poponyak (La Costa Canyon), Kelly Giblin (La Costa Canyon), Casey Rector (La Costa Canyon) and Celeste Mayer (La Costa Canyon), softball star Joanna Gail (Poway) and cross country runners A.J. Acosta (El Camino) and Brooke Giuffre (La Costa Canyon).

At Oregon State, the families of quarterback Sean Canfield (Carlsbad) and receiver Darrell Catchings (Escondido) escaped without damage.

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