Northridge Delivers Third Consecutive Winning Season

It’s interesting how a few minutes of ecstasy can make a person forget a long period of suffering.

The record will show that Cal State Northridge lost 4 of its last 5 football games. The Matadors also finished the season 2-4 in the Western Football Conference.

All this after a promising 4-0 start and No. 5 ranking in Division II.

But did it matter after a stirring, 35-33 come-from-behind victory over Southern Utah State on Saturday?

Of course it did. But not nearly as much as it would have had the result been reversed. The victory secured CSUN Coach Bob Burt a place in the long and not-so-fabled history of Matador football.

Northridge finished with a 6-5 record, making Burt the first coach to guide CSUN to 3 consecutive winning seasons. For the record, that covers 27 years and 6 previous coaches.

“It feels damn good,” said Burt, who has a record of 21-12 in 3 years with the Matadors. “We had nothing else to hang our hats on. We didn’t get into the playoffs and we didn’t win a conference championship, but we got our three in a row.”

Just as pleasing as the win was how it was accomplished.

The Matadors scored 3 touchdowns in the last 9 minutes, then withstood a final Thunderbird rally. Southern Utah (4-7, 2-4 in conference play) had an opportunity to tie after fullback Jim Andrus broke loose for a 35-yard touchdown run with 1:21 left, cutting the Northridge lead to 35-33. But the Matadors held on as linebacker Preston Hayslette batted down Rick Carter’s pass intended for Scott Mosher on a 2-point conversion attempt.

Senior quarterback Rob Huffman finished his Northridge career with a quarter to remember. He connected with tailback Albert Fann on a 14-yard pass play that cut CSUN’s deficit to 27-21 with 8:56 left and directed 2 more scoring drives to put the Matadors ahead, 35-27.

Fann scored again on a 3-yard run with 5 minutes to play, and, after Trent Morgan’s point-after, the Matadors led, 28-27.

CSUN made it 3 touchdowns on consecutive possessions when DerRick White, substituting for Fann, bolted in from 16 yards.

The maligned Huffman completed 17 of 30 passes for 227 yards, despite sitting out the second quarter in favor of Sherdrick Bonner.

His senior wide receivers also finished strongly. Robert Guillen had a game-high 8 catches for 128 yards and Bryan Kellen had 2 receptions for 24 yards, one on an important third-down play in the fourth quarter. Kellen also threw a key block to spring Fann on the 14-yard touchdown reception that got the fourth-quarter surge started.

In a game that featured 937 yards of total offense, no lead was safe. But after Hayslette knocked Carter’s conversion pass to the turf, a little pride was saved for Northridge.