The Colleges : Tardy Bell Finally Tolls For Valley

It took a few extra days, but Falley College finally got the bell that annually goes to the winner of the Valley-Pierce football game.

The bell was supposed to change hands immediately after Saturday’s game, but after Valley defeated Pierce, 64-16, it was nowhere to be found.

On Tuesday, security officers from Valley were dispatched to Pierce to pick up the trophy that Pierce had held since winning the last game of the series in 1985. The game was not played the past 2 seasons because Pierce temporarily dropped its program because of budget cuts.

Valley wasted no time sounding off after taking possession of its prize.

“Our equipment man rolled it out and banged away at it,” Valley Coach Chuck Ferrero said. “We had it on our practice field for two days painted up all green and white. It was nice.”

Excused absence: One person absent from the renewed rivalry was Valley Athletic Director George Goff, who missed a Monarch game--home or away--for only the second time in 25 years.

“The only other one I missed was at Bakersfield about 10 years ago,” said Goff, who coached the team from 1964-71 and has been athletic director since 1972. “It was snowing on the ridge route and there was no way to get there.”

Goff, who helped initiate the series with Pierce in 1965, missed Saturday night’s game to attend a 40th reunion of the 1948 Occidental College football team.

Big boot: Cal State Northridge was outgained, 543-178, in a 40-20 loss to Cal State Sacramento last week, but at least one Matador player had a night worth remembering.

Trent Morgan punted 10 times for a 45.5-yard average, including a best effort of 61 yards out of the Northridge end zone.

Morgan, a senior, came into the game ranked fourth in Division II with an average of 42 yards a punt. That figure improved to 42.7, which is closing in on Bryan Wagner’s school record of 43.7, set in 1983. Wagner is the punter for the Chicago Bears.

Harried harriers: After struggling for most of the year, Dave Walsh of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo turned in his best performance of the season at the Division II cross-country West regional on Saturday, placing 11th in 32 minutes, 26 seconds.

Walsh won the 1986 West regional for Cal State Northridge before transferring to San Luis Obispo in the fall of 1987.

Benny Cruz of Cal State L. A., the defending West regional champion, placed 12th in 32:28, helping the Golden Eagles defend their team title.

Cruz, a former standout at North Hollywood and Burbank high schools and Valley College, has been hampered by injuries.

Freshman Peter Oviatt of Humboldt State, a graduate of Agoura High, placed 30th in 33:25.

A runner shy: The Northridge women’s team, even with its top runner--Darcy Arreola--redshirting, finished in a third-place tie at the Division II West regional and qualified for the national championships for the eighth time in the past 9 years.

Had Arreola been running, who knows where the Lady Matadors might place in the national championships at Choctaw Trails in Clinton, Miss., Nov. 19.

Coach Don Strametz of CSUN has an educated guess.

“If Darcy had run at regionals, we probably would have scored 26 points less,” he explained. “And that would have given us 68 points, 3 ahead of UC Davis, who placed second.”

Davis is the fifth-ranked team in Division II. Northridge is No. 9.

“We didn’t run a great race,” Strametz said of the team’s performance at the regionals. “But we ran a solid one. There’s still some room for improvement. Hopefully we’ll see it at nationals.”

Arreola chose to sit this cross-country season out after training hard in order to qualify for the Olympic trials in track.

Playoff prices: Northridge has restructured its admission prices for its NCAA-sponsored West regional soccer game Saturday night against Cal State Hayward at North Campus Stadium.

Children 12 and under will be admitted for $1. Students get in for $2. General admission is $4. Reserved seating is $5.

Time trials: Jonz Norine of Cal Lutheran had 2 strategies worked up in order to qualify for the NAIA cross-country nationals in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 19.

If Cal Lutheran could not qualify for the nationals as a team, then Norine hoped to earn 1 of 5 individual qualifying berths at the District 3 championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday.

“I didn’t think we could make it as a team,” Norine said. “I wasn’t sure that we could until right about the middle of the race when I saw how we were running.”

Norine need not have worried. Cal Lutheran won the district title, thereby automatically gaining a berth in the 40-team nationals. It was Cal Lutheran’s second district title in 5 years.

Norine finished sixth in a time of 26:25.6 over the 8,000-meter course.

Kingsmen honored: Patrick Byrne and Matt Griffin joined Norine on the first-team All-District 3 cross-country squad. Coach Don Green was named the district Coach of the Year.

Lance Bartlett, who finished eighth at the district championships last week, was selected to the second team. Byrne, who finished fifth in a time of 26:24, was Cal Lutheran’s top finisher.

Moorpark qualifies: The Moorpark women’s cross-country team earned a wild-card berth to the Southern California regional championships at Hart Park in Bakersfield on Friday.

Leticia Melgoza placed ninth at the Western State Conference finals meet last week to lead the team to a fourth-place finish.

Jennifer Ahlquist was 13th and Anna Howald, Carol Lacy and Tracy Jenkins placed 17th, 18th and 19th.

Sophomore Chris Pressman is the only runner from the men’s team to qualify for the regionals. He placed third in the WSC finals.

Times staff writers John Ortega, Ralph Nichols, Gary Klein and Mike Hiserman contributed to this notebook.