Small Colleges : CSUN Plan Is Plain: Hand Ball to Kane

When Cal State Northridge running back Mike Kane gains 100 yards, the Matadors win.

Kane has had two 100-yard games this season and 10 in his career, and Northridge is 9-1 in those games. The exception was a 20-19 loss in 1984.

Kane gained only 67 yards last week in CSUN’s 37-0 win over Sacramento State but he scored two touchdowns. The 5-10, 185-pound senior from Temple City St. Francis High School has gained 321 yards on 62 carries in leading CSUN to a 3-0 record this season.

Jim Braken, a former CSUN golfer, was named Tuesday to coach the Matador golf team. The position is part time. Braken will have no teaching responsibilities.

Bracken played at CSUN during the 1978-79 season and graduated in 1980.

Christian Okoye, Azusa Pacific running back, will look back fondly on Whittier College. The 255-pound tailback rushed for a career-high 210 yards Saturday in Azusa Pacific’s 36-7 victory, becoming the school’s all-time rushing leader. Okoye had his other 200-yard game against Whittier last year, giving him 416 yards and 7 touchdowns against the Poets.

Okoye, a Nigerian who never played football until two years ago, has 2,357 yards rushing in 21 games--19 as a starter--and 12, 100-yard games. He is averaging 159 yards a game this season. The Cougars are 16-1-2 since he became a starter.

The Cougars will certainly miss Okoye when he graduates next spring, and they’ll probably miss Hillside Field, where Saturday the Cougars will play for the last time, against Menlo. The Cougars will then open an on-campus stadium and athletic complex. Since 1980, the team is 23-4-1 on the hill, where home games have been played since 1966.

Running back Chris Dabrow’s 199-yard rushing effort is noteworthy at pass-happy Claremont-Mudd, where the team has rushed for 100 yards only seven times in the last 40 games. Dabrow’s total, in the opener against Redlands, was more than any Claremont team has made since 1981, when the Stags ran for 203 yards against Whittier.

In that 40-game span, only one other Stag back has topped 100 yards, Jeff Ross with 117 against Pomona-Pitzer in 1984. The Stags’ rushing yardage of 306 against Redlands was their best this decade.

Small College Notes Freshman volleyball player Wendee Walker of Cal Poly Pomona had knee surgery and will miss the rest of the season. . . . Kicker Art Gonzales of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo was injured in a motorcycle accident and will be out for at least a month. . . . Quarterback Robbie Bristow of Pomona-Pitzer passed for 318 yards and 4 touchdowns in the school’s opener against Colorado College. His statistics would have been even more impressive had it not been for penalties. Three touchdown passes were negated by illegal procedure calls. . . . Over the last five football seasons, Azusa Pacific has a 29-8-1 record in day games but only a 4-5-1 mark at night. . . . Two Cal State Northridge woman cross-country runners have broken the Northridge record for the course at UCLA, where they compete. Freshman Darcy Arreola ran 17:23.6 and senior Nancy Bowman 17:40.6. Nina Manriquez held the mark of 17:49.2. . . . Senior Joann Howard of Cal Poly Pomona finished second in the Riverside cross-country invitational and set a school record on the 5-kilometer course, 17:06.4. . . .