Top-Rate Secondary, Second-Rate Stats

Aglance at this week’s Western Football Conference statistics shows Cal State Northridge ranked dead last among the seven teams in pass defense, having allowed 259 yards per game.

One might conclude from the statistics that the Matadors’ recruiting strategy for their defensive secondary was inspired by the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty: Give us your clumsy, your uncoordinated, your slow.

This secondary, you figure, must be a collection of overweight guys in uniforms that don’t fit who jump too late as passes sail over their heads, bump into each other and generally look like guys who hang around Happy Hour much too long. Well, if that’s your idea of what the CSUN secondary is, shame on you.

Simon says shame on you.

In seniors and pro prospects Simon Goss and Steve Benjamin--along with Ron Foster, Pat Cerruti and Jonathan Bradshaw--the Matadors have perhaps the finest secondary in the conference. There are two good reasons why they are buried at the bottom of the WFC stat heap four games into the season.

First, the Matadors kicked off their season against Nevada Reno, a Division I-AA powerhouse that Division II Northridge had no right being on the same field with. Reno’s brilliant quarterback, Eric Beavers, passed for 319 yards and three touchdowns in that game. A backup quarterback added 44 more yards in a 56-12 thrashing.

Second, the Matadors’ next two games were against all-out passing attacks. The St. Mary’s Gaels and the San Francisco State Gators--both beaten by CSUN--consider running to be something you do when you’re late for the bus. San Francisco State’s Rich Strasser, considered one of the best passers on the West Coast, threw 56 times, completing 29 for 395 yards and two touchdowns.

When the CSUN defense encountered Cal State Hayward’s balanced running and passing attack last week, Goss, Benjamin and the others threw a blanket over the passing game, allowing only 71 yards.

“You never like to see yourself last in any department,” said CSUN Coach Tom Keele, “but what really matters is the points (42) they’ve allowed, and I think they’ve done a great job in that department against really strong passing teams. Reno just overwhelmed us, and that kid (Strasser) from San Francisco, well, he’s going to get his yards against any team he faces.”

The leaders of the secondary, Goss and Benjamin, are perhaps the best at their positions in CSUN history. Goss, who was All-City and the team MVP at Compton High in 1981, is a bruising 192-pound strong safety who leads the WFC with three interceptions. He returned one of them 56 yards. Benjamin, the left cornerback from Van Nuys High, is considered one of the best Division II defensive backs. He was voted to the All-WFC team as a freshman, sophomore and junior, and will probably make it a four-year sweep at the end of this season.

Both of them have seen the stats that list the CSUN defense against air attacks as only slightly better than England’s during World War II. But Goss and Benjamin know the stats don’t tell the real story.

“The first few teams we played did nothing but throw the ball, but they still didn’t complete many big passes against us,” said the muscular Goss. “I think we’ve only given up five deep passes all season. Hayward tried to throw on us early, but no one was open. I mean no one was open.

“I’m satisfied with our secondary this season. We won’t be pushed around by anyone. We can dominate people. We don’t like to see those stats, but they don’t really bother us because we know the reason for them.”

Benjamin, a 185-pounder whose speed and quickness complements the hard hitting of Goss, said any defense would allow a lot of yards under the barrage of passes the Matadors have seen this season. The statistic that offsets all those yards, he said, is team interceptions. CSUN is tied for first in that category with eight.

“When you go against an offense like Reno’s that passes about 60 times a game, you’re going to give up yards. There’s no way around it,” he said. “But so much of it is short stuff out in the flats and those dumps between the linebackers and the secondary. In the last game (against Hayward) they threw four long passes at me and they were all incomplete. Teams just won’t throw deep against us.”

As CSUN prepares for Saturday’s game against Sonoma State and its WFC opener the following week against Cal Lutheran, Goss and Benjamin are secretly praying that opponents will keep throwing the ball against the Matadors.

“We are so confident in our ability,” Goss said. “I feel we’re as good or better than any secondary in the conference.”