FOOTBALL : Kane Could Rush Into the WFC as an Expansion Team All by Himself

Mike Kane of Northridge doubled the rushing total of the Portland team by running for 236 yards Saturday. Three games before, Kane out-rushed St. Mary’s, 212-83.

Kane has now out-gained Matador opponents by himself six times this season. He has rushed for fewer than 100 yards only twice in 10 games, but was actually held under 100 only once when he had 86 against UC Davis.

Kane had 59 yards against San Francisco State, but he carried just 12 times in a 37-0 Northridge victory.

Meanwhile, Bryan Smith of Santa Clara is the only running back to reach 100 against the Matador defense. Smith had 100 on 19 carries in a 38-32 Northridge victory three weeks ago. Kane has not been out-gained by an opposing team’s running back this season.

Bowl bound? Moorpark (6-3, 4-1), runner-up in the Western State Conference, has emerged as the most likely candidate for an at-large berth in the Southern California Conference Bowl, according to Walt Rilliet, athletic commissioner for the California Assn. of Community Colleges.

Before an at-large invitation can be extended to Moorpark, however, the SCC’s host must be determined. That will be decided at the conclusion of the regular season on Saturday.

“Moorpark came on real strong at the end of the season,” Rilliet said. “They shouldn’t hang up their uniforms.”

They haven’t. But Moorpark Coach Jim Bittner did give his team the week off with the notion that there is still another game to be played.

“We’re trying to be smarter this time,” Bittner said. “Last year when we went to the Brahma Bowl, I felt like we left our game on the practice field. We practiced the whole time before the game, and it became more of a chore than fun.

“I don’t think the layoff will hurt us. We’ll still have almost two weeks to get back in a groove.”

Valley College football Coach Chuck Ferrero felt almost helpless on the sidelines of last week’s Southern California Conference game with Chaffey.

And he was the winning coach in a 77-14 rout.

“We certainly didn’t try to run it up,” he said. “We played everybody, and in the second half we only ran two plays--a dive and off tackle. You can’t tell the kids to fall down.”

They didn’t. Valley added three touchdowns in the second half en route to a school record 610 yards in total offense. Quarterback Barry Hanks completed 15 of 17 passes in the first half for over 300 yards.

Crowded out: Northridge’s victory over Portland State came before 4,106 fans, the smallest crowd of the season at North Campus Stadium.

That same total would have been the second biggest crowd of last season.

In 1985, Northridge drew 16,507, or an average of 3,301, to its five home games. This season, 24,844, an average of 4,969, have come to see the Matadors.

Last season, Northridge had a very wide-open and entertaining run-and-shoot offense, but finished with a 4-7 record.

This season, the Matadors have passed fewer than 20 times a game, but are 8-2.

Northridge fans obviously enjoy a boring win over an exciting loss.

On the road this season, the Matadors have played before 11,768 fans, an average of 2,354.

The ties that bond: There is nothing that Jim Bonds, father of Tom and Jim Bonds, enjoys more than watching his sons fill the air with passes. He has only missed one of his sons’ games: when he was hospitalized during Tom’s junior varsity season at Hart. “I nearly tore the walls down,” he said.

Last week, his sons tore holes through secondaries and the senior Bonds, of course, watched every play. Tom, junior quarterback at Cal Lutheran, completed 22 of 36 passes for 429 yards and 5 touchdowns in the 45-23 win Saturday over Azusa Pacific. Jim, senior quarterback at Hart High, completed 21 of 28 passes for 301 yards and 4 touchdowns in the Indians’ 51-27 win over Schurr. Together, the Bonds boys connected on 43 of 64 passes for 730 yards and 9 touchdowns.

A RUNAWAY KANE

A RUSHING COMPARISON BETWEEN CSUN’S MIKE KANE AND OPPONENTS

Opponents’ Yardage Kane CS Sonoma 83 122 CS Hayward 111 133 San Francisco 66 59 Southern Utah 261 158 Cal Lutheran 112 120 Cal Poly SLO 219 103 St. Mary’s 83 212 Santa Clara 118 174 UC Davis 111 86 Portland State 118 236 Total 1,282 1,403