To go an entire season without scoring a goal or recording an assist — that would be the worst nightmare of any soccer player that’s used to being in the offensive spotlight.

Though for senior forward Patrick Nelle, the offensive juggernaut of Sacramento State’s men’s soccer team, that wouldn’t be much of a nightmare at all.

“If we take home a championship, I’d feel like I would have had the best season of my life even if I didn’t have any goals or assists the whole year,” Nelle said.

During his 2001 freshman year, Nelle got a taste of winning when his team won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular season title with a 4-1-2 record before losing in the first round.

Nelle only started four of those games, but with that he made the most of his limited playing time and finished the season with two goals, two assists and six points.

To Nelle, it’s time for the Hornets to advance past the first round of post-season play.

Nelle said that to step its play up to the next level, the team will have to put everything else aside and leave it all out on the field.

“Pure intensity, passion, concentration,” Nelle said, referring to what he expects from both himself and the rest of his teammates. “You play college soccer because you are serious. You took it serious in high school and you take it serious now.

“Being a senior and a veteran, I have the responsibility to set an example and I expect everyone to have that same feeling if we want to make it a fourth straight playoff appearance.”

Nelle took it serious in high school, where in his senior year, he was named team MVP and first team all-Capital Athletic League. As a junior, he was named first team all-Sierra Valley League and Offensive Player of the Year when he led Rio Americano High School to consecutive conference championships. After high school, there was no time to rest on his laurels.

Nelle’s father, Chris Nelle, said that Patrick started playing club soccer with the River City Rush and dropped all of his other sports activities to concentrate solely on soccer.

“He dedicated himself to soccer 12 months out of the year. He was always very serious about going to the next level (after high school) and now he’s there playing Division 1 soccer.”

Nelle continued to work at his passion, playing in leagues year-round, including with the Rush, where he led his team in scoring and to a No. 2 U-19 national rank. He also had a recruiter from an English soccer team come out and take a look at him.

All of the off season work paid off, but the results were mixed on the field.

After a promising freshman year, Nelle didn’t exactly take the college soccer world by storm. In his sophomore year, Nelle started seven games and finished tied for fourth on the Hornets with two goals, which wasn’t really the goal-scoring explosiveness head coach Mike Linenberger was expecting to see out of him.

“Patrick means a lot to our team and he’s grown tremendously since his freshman year,” Linenberger said. “He’s always been a good player with speed, but he only showed his talent sporadically. Now he has started to be more consistent. He’s constantly battling and banging bodies. He’s been a different player over these last couple of years.”

Nelle is his harshest critic, constantly trying to improve himself in order to reach the next plateau.

“It’s been hard getting used to college ball from club ball because you have to adapt to the competition around you and hustle and work that much more,” Nelle said.

Nelle adjusted nicely by his junior year, becoming the Hornets’ top scoring threat and becoming the player everyone knew he was capable of being. In 2003, all the hard work paid off as he was named to the second team all-MPSF.

Though he’s had individual success, Nelle has a trying task ahead of him for 2004, having to adapt to playing with two new central midfielders, junior forward Ricky Rodriguez and senior forward David Fraser.

“Me and Nelle, we’re a dynamic duo,” Rodriguez said. “He has the speed to make things happen.”

“Patrick has really made some strides since his rookie year,” said Fraser, a teammate of Nelle’s who has seen him play every year at Sac State. “He’s more mature now. He has all the skill in the world and now the mental game is there, too.”

Fraser was also on the Sacramento Knights with Nelle this past summer, a club in which Nelle led in scoring with six goals, one assist and an offensive player of the year award.

Despite him being a force out on the soccer field, sophomore midfielder Brandon Baggett said Nelle is quite the character off of it.

“He’s just really a great guy and definitely the goofiest guy on the team,” Baggett said. “We’ll be in the weight room and he’ll be drumming on the weights, playing pranks on some guys by putting baby powder in their cleats.

“He’s single and drives a Mustang, so he’s got that going for him too,” Baggett said.

Nelle is a much-respected player for his skills on the field, but it’s his impetus and determination that proves most admirable for a man that has seemingly everything, but wants even more, particularly in the form of a conference championship.

“Out of myself and my teammates, I expect us to win, bottom line,” Nelle said.