The Colleges : Cal Lutheran, CSUN Give Boot to Punters

After failing to find capable punters on their squads, Cal State Northridge Coach Bob Burt and Cal Lutheran Coach Bob Shoup have been forced to look elsewhere.

Northridge, which lost freshman recruit Albert Razo because of academic ineligibility, used kicker Abo Velasco as a punter during its first two games. Velasco’s best boot was his first, a 41-yard punt that was downed inside the 10-yard line.

But from then on, it was downhill. Velasco punted 11 times for a 28.5 average.

Cal Lutheran’s problems were even more obvious. Cary Caulfield, a starting linebacker, averaged 22 yards a punt, had two kicks blocked and another returned for a touchdown against Sonoma State.

Both teams are likely to have new punters Saturday. CSUN is waiting for Darren McMahon, a walk-on from Granada Hills High, to receive eligibility clearance. He practiced with the team for the first time Tuesday.

“He’s got a live leg,” Burt said of McMahon. “It looks like he’s got some potential.” McMahon reportedly punted for a 38-yard average at Granada Hills last season.

Cal Lutheran’s new punter is also a walk-on--and a recycled one at that. Dave Fick, a senior, was on the team three seasons ago but quit after he couldn’t crack the lineup.

Burt said that he will stay with Velasco while slowly breaking in McMahon, but Fick will take over Kingsmen punting duties Saturday against St. Mary’s.

“Our kicking game was . . . generally pathetic,” Shoup said. “We didn’t do anything that was even average. It was all poor or worse for us. I think Dave Fick will be the best answer to the whole situation.”

Numbers game: Cal Lutheran does not play in a two-person beach volleyball league, so Coach Carla DuPuis was left a few women short when only four reported for the beginning of camp Aug. 29 and two promptly quit.

One decided to join the school’s new soccer team, and another, a senior, wanted to have weekends free to watch her boyfriend play football. Her squad reduced to two, DuPuis put out a call for volleyball players. Seventeen women tried out, but Cal Lutheran couldn’t get a team together in time for a season-opening tournament at Whittier.

The new Regals played their first game Tuesday at Westmont with predictably grim results, losing, 15-3, 15-0, 15-0. Jenifer Larson, a returning senior outside hitter, was one of the few bright spots--she had seven kills and a hitting percentage of .333.

About a dozen players were eligible for the game, and the roster eventually should include 18 players. Cal Lutheran, which finished 8-10 last season, hit .030 against Westmont.

Hotheaded: Cal State Northridge soccer Coach Marwan Ass’ad deplores violence on the field, yet two of his players--goalkeeper Mike Littman and midfielder Ed Burns--were issued red cards and thrown out of last weekend’s matches against Cal State L. A. and The Master’s.

Littman was given a red card for fighting in Friday’s 2-0 win over Cal State L. A. and sat out Saturday night’s 1-0 win against Master’s in accordance with NCAA rules. Burns was red-carded for unnecessary roughness against Master’s and had to sit out Wednesday’s match against Claremont-Mudd.

“We got caught up in two physical games and we lost our composure,” Ass’ad said. “And we can’t do that and be effective. We want to be tough and aggressive, but we have to maintain our composure.

“When you lose your composure you don’t think clearly and you don’t play well.”

Despite the suspensions of Littman and Burns, Ass’ad had no qualms with the NCAA rules, advocating a two-game suspension instead of one.

“I hate dirty play,” Ass’ad said. “It has no business in the sport. If you play dirty, you should be severely punished for it.”

Poll position: Official rankings compiled by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. will not begin until next week, but the Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team made a bid for No. 1 with its four-game victory over Cal State Sacramento on Monday night in Sacramento.

The Tachikara poll, featuring votes from 30 of the nation’s coaches, had rated Sacramento first and Northridge second before the match. Northridge Coach Walt Ker saw dramatic improvement in his team, which tied for fifth place in the UC Davis tournament last weekend.

“Sacramento has a very tough serving team and we passed much better against them than we did throughout the tournament,” Ker said. “We became a dominant blocking team and did a very good job on position defense.”

Tournament time: With the move of the Northridge athletic program to the Division I level in 1990, the two-day Northridge Invitational women’s volleyball tournament that begins Friday will be the first--and last--of its kind.

“We may host a tournament next year,” Ker said, “but it will be with all Division I teams.”

This year’s five-team field includes Northridge, defending-champion Portland State, North Dakota State and UC Riverside--all of which participated in the 1988 Division II national championships--and San Francisco State.

The round-robin format calls for each team to play two best-of-five matches a day.

Quarterback quandary: Tim Zeddies, Cal Lutheran’s starting quarterback, struggled during the team’s opener and was replaced by Dan Nagelmann midway through the third quarter.

Frequently under siege from a heavy rush, Zeddies threw off his back foot and failed to put much zip on the ball. He completed five of 16 passes for 37 yards and threw two interceptions.

Nagelmann was prepared to play in the second half but entered unexpectedly in the middle of a series after Zeddies was shaken up on a rollout.

Nagelmann, a transfer from Moorpark College who redshirted last year, shook off the rust to complete six of 16 passes, including a 15-yard touchdown to Tony Leogrande. Nagelmann passed for 76 yards but also had an interception.

Neither quarterback ignited the sluggish CLU offense, and Shoup said after the game that Zeddies would again be the starter for Saturday’s game against St. Mary’s.

However, at his Wednesday press luncheon, Shoup revealed that he was wavering after Nagelmann had played well in practice on Tuesday.

“If that repeats itself tonight, maybe Nagelmann deserves to start,” Shoup said Wednesday. “I don’t want to create a merry-go-round with the quarterbacks, “but right now Nagelmann has more experience than Zeddies.”

Gary Klein and staff writers Mike Hiserman, John Ortega and Brendan Healey contributed to this notebook.