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Senior midfielder Justin Kirk uses his experienced footwork in a recent game against UCLA. Kirk is one of 15 returning letter winners and received All-Pac-10 honorable mention his sophomore year. Carli Pierce Barometer Staff Photographer [Click to enlarge]

For senior forward Justin Kirk, a t-shirt bought in Argentina has volumes of meaning.

He bought it when he played with his regional team in Colorado. They had traveled down there to play a professional team that hadn't lost, let alone really been scored on, in five years.

Think about this, kids.

FIVE YEARS.

Let's put that in perspective. Collegiate soccer teams might play 25 games or so per season, depending on tournaments and postseason play.

Each match lasts 90 minutes, so multiply that by 25 and you get a whopping 2,250 minutes per year of undefeated play.

Multiply THAT by five and that's 11,250 minutes.

Imagine bragging to people who try to diss on the program: "Oh yeah? We've played eleven thousand, two hundred and fifty minutes unbeaten -- BOOYA!"

Dynamic, wiry little Kirk and his team had a lot of mojo to face up to in that game.

This Argentinian team had lived, breathed, eaten, drunk and slept soccer since conception -- and what did Kirk do?

"I scored on them," Kirk said. "Then, they walked off the field. They don't really respect Americans, and since we scored on them -- that was a total threat to their undefeated record, and they walked off the field so they wouldn't have to face losing to a bunch of Americans.

"But then they came back on the field after the half and asked where we were going -- and our coach just told us to take our shinguards off so we could focus on playing teams that had sportsmanship."

Now that Kirk has pirated the haughtiness of a brash Argentinian team, he can move on to demoralizing his final Pac-10 opponents: Stanford and Cal.

Speaking of Cal, Kirk was supposed to play there.

But OSU soccer coach Dana Taylor saw Kirk playing and stopped by his house on his way out west from Creighton University. Cal had no chance.

"Basically they wrote me off, saying I made a mistake," Kirk said. "But I know I made the right choice coming to OSU."

Coming from a high school that went undefeated his last two seasons, and regional teams that won state tournaments, Kirk was definitely prepared to enter the rigors of Pac-10 play.

However, a knee injury brought him up short last season.

After a series of cortisone shots and multiple knee surgeries, Kirk had been fiddling with the idea of playing regularly. He played in their game against Tulsa right after the last knee surgery, but didn't really hit the action hard until he scored his first point against Washington.

That day, the Beavers beat the Huskies for the first time EVER.

Racking up an assist is great, but "I'd like to score a goal," Kirk said.

"Even though my role now consists of bringing energy on the field," he said. "I don't score a lot of goals for a forward, but I've been trying to get the ball to Alan Gordon from the wing."

Kirk looked to former Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis, who dealed with a career-ending knee injury, for his own recuperation.

"With such an injury, you wonder if you are ever ready to play at the level you had played at before the injury," Kirk said.

Paying close attention to Davis' way of life, Kirk felt he's learned a lot about himself as well.

Driven by the crucial need to prove themselves to the NCAA Selections Committee, the Beavers will be fired up for their final two Pac-10 games.

The Comeback Kid made his comeback. Now it's time for Kirk to finish his senior season with the energy and quick style of play to catapult the OSU's best team to the tournament.

The Pac-10 is the conference of champions and the Beavers belong in that echelon.

Candace Zepp is a sports writer for The Daily Barometer. She can be reached at baro.sports@studentmedia. orst.edu.

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