St. Mary’s Passes on Preparing for Run and Shoot

St. Mary’s and Cal State Northridge, who meet Saturday afternoon in Northern California in a Western Football Conference game, took different roads in their first game of the season but ended up in the same place: defeat.

St. Mary’s led Hayward State, 3-0, at halftime, then fell apart faster than a $48 suit. On three successive possessions in the third quarter, two interceptions led to quick Hayward touchdowns and a blocked punt resulted a third TD. Hayward went on to win, 38-17.

Northridge, which opened two weeks ago and drew a bye last weekend, took a much more direct route to defeat against Division I Nevada Reno. The Matadors fell behind almost immediately and were left in the dust by the Big Sky Conference’s top-ranked team.

Northridge took the game against Reno strictly for financial reasons: They were guaranteed a sizable pot just for showing up.

“We need the money so desperately and that game brought us a lot of money. That’s why we played them,” CSUN Coach Tom Keele said. “It was guaranteed.”

It was also virtually guaranteed that the Matadors would be steamrolled by the powerful Wolfpack, who flattened them, 56-12. If it’s any consolation to Keele and his troops, Reno traveled south last week and dismantled Division I Cal State Fullerton, 30-3.

“We’re really looking forward to this game,” Keele said of the match-up against St. Mary’s in Moraga. “Now we’ve got a team on our own level, a team we can compete against.

“St. Mary’s is a very good football team. They don’t do a lot of things, but what they do they do well.”

Should there be any overconfidence by the Matadors--and there shouldn’t be--Keele will gently remind them that they led the Gaels, 19-0, at halftime last season at CSUN’s North Campus Stadium before losing the game, 20-19.

Quarterback Chris Parker, who started against Reno in Northridge’s new run-and-shoot, pass-oriented offense, suffered a severely bruised right shoulder under the torrid Wolfpack pass rush and did not practice last week. But Keele said he expects Parker to be ready for St. Mary’s.

Gaels’ Coach Joe DeLuca said that despite CSUN’s newly designed offense, his team’s top priority will be to handle running back Mike Kane, who needs only 14 carries and 182 yards to become the school’s all-time leader in attempts and rushing yards.

DeLuca’s decision to concentrate on stopping Kane is based on last season’s game, when Kane treated the St. Mary’s defense like a turnstile--romping for a WFC-record 180 yards.

“The primary thing about Northridge, even with the new offense, is that they have one of best running backs on the coast in Mike Kane. Our objective is to stop him.”

Just when it looked as if the Cal Lutheran College running game might disappear completely, it surfaced with style in the Kingsmen’s season-opening 28-7 win last Saturday at Sonoma State.

Led by sophomore Tracy Downs and seniors Noel Hicks and Leo Briones, CLC gained 196 yards rushing.

For Bob Shoup, who has coached CLC since the school opened 24 years ago, it was as if an old friend had come knocking on his door.

After being primarily a running team in the 1960s, Cal Lutheran was one of the first colleges to pass as much as it ran in the ‘70s. The strategy was successful as the Kingsmen won the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics title in 1971 and were runners-up in 1975 and 1977.

Soon, however, striking quickly through the air became not only a fashion, but a frenzy.

The craze peaked at CLC in 1982 when school records of 423 passing attempts, 236 completions and 3,321 passing yards were set. Quarterback Russ Jensen set individual marks by completing 198 of 362 passes for 2,818 yards.

By that time, however, the once-proud Kingsmen running attack was nothing more than a diversionary tactic, something to eat up a few minutes while the receivers caught their breath.

The team gained only 394 yards rushing in 1978 and the ground game has improved little since, totaling 685 yards last season on 343 attempts. The leading rusher was Briones with 250 yards.

That all changed against Sonoma.

When Bonds started slowly, completing one of seven passes in the first half, the running game responded quickly.

A long, infantry-style gainer set up CLC’s first score. Late in the second quarter, Hicks hit a hole off-tackle, cut outside, and burst up the sideline for 27 yards to the Cossack three. Downs, who led all rushers with 92 yards, punched over from the one.

Although Bonds threw two touchdown passes and set up another with a completion in the third quarter, Shoup said it was the successful running game that opened the passing lanes.

“They were laying back for the pass early in the game,” Shoup said. “When we showed that we could run effectively, their linebackers couldn’t retreat at the snap of the ball.”

When Bonds returns to the bench after throwing a touchdown pass in the coming weeks and slaps hands with a running back, it may be for more than a good block or catch. The pass may have been set up by a successful running play minutes earlier.

CSUN has hired a new assistant women’s volleyball coach: 26-year-old Teresa Denton, a two-time All-America during her four years on the Pepperdine women’s volleyball team.

Denton, who went to Pepperdine after graduating from Louisville High, replaces Rob Wortmann. He resigned in the spring because of what a school official said were conflicts between coaching and his religion.

“He did not believe in telling his players to go out and ‘kill,’ ” said CSUN spokesman Greg Badovinac. “He didn’t believe in putting that much emphasis on winning. He felt it was a conflict with his religion.”

The team plays Loyola Marymount on Friday night at Loyola. The Lady Matadors are 2-2 following a four-game, season-opening trip to Hawaii, where they beat Division II Hawaii Hilo twice before being thumped twice by Division I Hawaii last week.

Pierce College’s football team will leave on a bus Friday for a game against Sacramento City College. The route to Sacramento will take them through Stanford and Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

The team will work out Friday afternoon in Stanford Stadium, site of the 1985 Super Bowl, before continuing its erratic journey to the state capital. Pierce Coach Jim Fenwick made contacts at Stanford this summer when he participated in the Jack Elway Football Camp.

After the light workout, the bus will continue to San Francisco, where the players and coaches will dine at the wharf.

Fenwick stresses, however, that his players are not going on a joy ride.

“It’s a small reward for their sweat and hard work,” he said. “But this is a football trip and the bottom line is that they’ll be representing Pierce College.”

Times staff writer Steve Henson contributed to this notebook.