Aguilar reaching goals

Carlos Aguilar said he is never nervous on the soccer field. No matter how big the game, how energetic the crowd, or how intense the pressure put upon him by opposing defenders, the UC Irvine senior midfielder and forward said he merely adapts to the situation.

It is, he admits, attributable more to his survival instinct than any accumulation of competitive poise.

For when you grow up on streets frequented by gangs and violence, developing the vision necessary to survey your surroundings is not a luxury reserved for the flow of play on the pitch.

“It’s different in Orange County,” said Aguilar, whose postseason heroics have made a big difference for the Anteaters (15-6), who play host to Stanford (11-5-2) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament tonight at 6. “Here, I can walk to the store by myself. Back home, you can’t really do that, because there is so much violence occurring.”

Home for Aguilar was originally Pacoima, then Palmdale. Different places, same peril.

“I got jumped when I was 9 in Pacoima. And it happened again when I was walking home from high school in Palmdale,” Aguilar said. “I got hit a couple times, but the cops came, so I was lucky enough to get away.”

Aguilar also managed to stay away from the overtures of neighboring gangs and, to a large degree, the perils of the neighborhood streets.

“You could say I didn’t grow up in the best neighborhood,” he said. “So, the soccer ball took me out of the drug and gang environment. You couldn’t avoid it totally, I guess, but the best way to stay away, for me, was playing soccer. I was never in a gang, but I always knew gang members. I guess it was just part of the neighborhood where we lived.

“You had to adapt to the environment. You had to know what streets you could walk through at certain times and what time you had to be home by without somebody trying to do something to you.”

Soccer eventually provided a way out. After starring for two varsity seasons at Palmdale High (he sprouted from a 5-foot, 100-pound freshman into a 5-9 junior who eventually helped Palmdale go 24-1-5 his senior season) he helped Taft Community College reach back-to-back state title games. He scored both goals in a 2-0 state-championship-game victory as a sophomore, then chose UCI over Cal State Northridge.

As an Anteater, he has developed a reputation as a fluid playmaker with opportunistic scoring skills. He has also become known as a clutch performer. He scored the game-winning goal last season against Northridge to clinch an outright regular-season Big West Conference championship, the program’s first.

This season, he had three goals and an assist in two conference tournament wins, allowing UCI to claim its second straight Big West Tournament crown and earn the No. 16 seed, as well as a first-round bye, in the NCAA Tournament.

He scored both goals in a 2-1 double-overtime tournament semifinal win at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and was named Big West Tournament MVP.

He has six goals and seven assists this season and earned first-team All-Big West recognition.

“Carlos is a very emotional player,” UCI Coach George Kuntz said. “When he is focused, he can be hard to stop. This is the time of year he has shown he can step up.”

Aguilar rounds out a prolific quartet of UCI scorers that includes senior Irving Garcia, the Big West Offensive Player of the Year (eight goals, nine assists) and juniors Amani Walker (nine goals, three assists) and Spencer Thompson (seven goals, four assists).

Aguilar said he and Garcia have an unspoken bond.

“It’s a connection between me and Irving,” Aguilar said. “He knows how I play and I know how he plays. We don’t even have to talk on the field; we can just make eye contact and know what the other is going to do.”

Aguilar, the first in his family to attend college, plans to graduate in the spring. He realizes education is also a ticket out of his home environment and he hopes to inspire his younger brother and sister, 12 and 7 respectively, with that very message.