After an hour of intense play in the sweltering New Mexico heat earlier this fall, Washington goalkeeper Rylan Hawkins collided with a New Mexico forward after making a save. Hawkins suffered a serious facial injury, cutting his season short.

There was still half an hour left on the clock, leaving plenty of scoring opportunities for both sides. With Hawkins out, redshirt freshman goalie Stephen Fung stepped in and took command of the net.

"I never expected it to happen," Fung remarked of Hawkins' season-ending injury. "But I felt pretty prepared."

Fung went on to preserve the shutout in the UW's 1-0 win over New Mexico. In Washington's following game against third-ranked Southern Methodist University, Fung made his first career start and recorded four saves for yet another UW shutout victory.

Although Fung has six shutouts to his credit this season, soccer didn't always come naturally in his earlier years.

"I wasn't really athletic," Fung explained. "I was really tall when I was young so I wasn't really coordinated."

Growing up in his hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii, Fung had to continually work to get to where he is now. Fung began playing competitively at the age of 11 for the Honolulu Bulls Soccer Club. He started out in the better of the club's two teams, the red team, but not long after the now 6-foot-2-inch goalie's inexperience caught up to him.

"I was on the red team for my first year, and then I got cut to the black team when I was a U-13," Fung said.

Slowly but surely, Fung found his niche defending the goal.

"They started me as a forward up top and I slowly made my way back," Fung said. "Then they just stuck me in goal, and that's just how I got there."

Being back at the net was a good fit for Fung, who made Hawaii's '88 state team and the regional pool. (In Hawaii, state teams are classified by the year of players' birth.) Soon others took notice of his progression as well.

"I don't know how, but in a one or two year period ... he was unbelievable," said Daniel Phelps, a second-year UW midfielder who also grew up in Hawaii and played for the same club.

Even though Fung has made a name for himself at the collegiate level, the transition from Hawaii to Seattle has been a big one.

"The pace of the game's a lot faster, and the guys are a lot bigger," Fung said of the college game. "Even so, that doesn't necessarily translate to a bad thing."

He also welcomes the new style of play.

"They have a lot more passion, I feel like, over here," Fung added. "In Hawaii, people are like 'I'm just playing for fun, I'd rather go to the beach and kick it.' Everyone's laid back. Over here, everyone's more committed, and I like it."

Fung's enthusiasm for the game is visible to just about anyone, including his current teammates, who can't find one negative thing to say about him.

"If I had to describe Stephen Fung, I'd just describe him as a pretty chill dude that just loves to cook and have a good time," Phelps said. "He's a connoisseur of many foods and he's pretty smart, pretty focused on school and pretty religious on attending class and getting work done. He's just an all-around good guy."

The attitude is very much mutual, as Fung accredits his teammates for being his favorite part about playing soccer.

"I really love my team a lot," Fung said. "I'd do anything for the guys."

This includes cooking on occasion for some of his teammates, an activity Fung enjoys on his downtime.

"I've pulled off some pretty good food," he said. "I did a leg of lamb, and the other day I made an ice cream cake. It was a pretty big hit."

With his impressive culinary talents, Stephen's teammates can't help but to indulge.

"He makes a pretty mean breakfast sandwich," sophomore defender Taylor Hoss said.

Off the field and in the classroom, Fung is a business major with a 3.4 GPA. On the pitch, he tries his best not to let anything past him, not even through teeth-gritting pain.

"He's got the highest pain tolerance of anyone I've ever met," Phelps explained. "Last year, during one of the first weeks of preseason, on a shot he broke his finger and he fractured his pinky so bad the top part was pretty much twisted over, and it was as fat as two of my fingers combined."

Through the rigors of the classroom and the blistering speed of the balls that are fired at him, Fung is still able to maintain a calm and collected attitude and a driven mentality, which is a quality that others find notable about him.

"Even when he redshirted as a freshman, Fung still had a good mental approach," sophomore teammate Adam Lang said about him. "He still worked hard on and off the field, and now he's pretty much rewarded for it."

[Reach reporter Sheena Nguyen at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.]