VALLEY-AREA COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Meehan’s Vault Impairs CSUN’s Rise to the Top

Bet that Mike Meehan, a 6-5, 255-pound Cal State Northridge defensive tackle, has done his last Mary Lou Retton imitation.

Meehan was doing required gymnastics exercises in a class last week when he sustained a deep bruise to his right hip after landing awkwardly on a vaulting horse.

The injury couldn’t have occurred at a worse time. Meehan, who was experiencing difficulty walking last week, didn’t make the trip to Saturday’s game at Portland State. CSUN also was missing Tom Gray, its starting nose tackle.

Surprisingly enough, the Matadors held Portland’s powerful running game to two yards in 12 carries during the first half. But in the second half, the Matadors wore down and the Vikings finished with 147 yards in 39 carries. In addition, Portland became the first team this season to control the ball and run more offensive plays than CSUN, 64-55.

Bob Burt, Northridge’s coach, expects Meehan to play this week in another important game at UC Davis.

Gray sustained an injury against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, forcing him to miss CSUN’s game against Cal Lutheran on Oct. 7. He practiced the early part of last week, but aggrevated the injury on Wednesday. His status for the Davis game is still questionable, Burt said.

Add CSUN: Meehan’s replacement, Eric Ahola, a 6-4, 250-pound junior, was at times spectacular against Portland.

He made only two tackles but also deflected two passes and blocked an extra-point. “He played well for his first start,” Burt said. “He’s played well every time we’ve put him in. He’s big, he can run, and he has some instincts.”

Fake question: Jim Bittner, football coach at Moorpark College, opened himself up for some second-guessing during a 28-27 loss to Bakersfield on Saturday.

Leading 24-20 in the third quarter, Moorpark botched a faked 38-yard field-goal attempt when holder Tony Kerr’s pass intended for Freddie Bradley was intercepted at the goal line.

However, Jason Merrill, the Raiders’ quarterback, stuck by his coach’s decision. “I thought it was a good call,” said Merrill, who completed 19 of 38 passes for 324 yards and a touchdown. “If we would have got it, it would have boosted our energy level up even higher than it already was.”

The missed scoring opportunity came back to haunt Moorpark. After Sean Cheevers gave the Raiders a 27-20 lead, Bakersfield scored on a 36-yard pass play with 5:05 left in the game, then added a two-point conversion.

In fact, Moorpark missed several scoring opportunities.

Trailing, 13-7, in the first quarter, Merrill hit Peter Marine with an apparent 31-yard touchdown pass, but the freshman from Canoga Park High was called for offensive pass interference, and the Raiders failed to score.

In the second quarter, a muffed Bakersfield punt gave Moorpark the ball on Bakersfield’s 34-yard line, but the Raiders punted after three consecutive incomplete passes.

“There’s no question in my mind that we should have beaten this team by at least one or two touchdowns,” Merrill said. “We had plenty of opportunities to put them away.”

But they never did.

Numbers game: Bakersfield’s 28 points were 11 more than Moorpark had allowed in the first four games of the season.

The Raiders had not given up that many points since a 42-28 victory against Santa Barbara in 1987, and it had been 28 games since they had allowed that many points in a losing effort. In 1986, Glendale defeated Moorpark, 31-21.

Strong-arm tactics: Ronnie Lopez was impressive in his first start at quarterback for Glendale, completing 12 of 23 passes for 266 yards and four touchdowns against Santa Monica.

Lopez, a sophomore who transferred to Glendale from Pierce, was starting in place of sophomore Darren Fitzgerald who suffered a bruised shoulder the week before against Compton.

“We told Ronnie before the game, ‘This is your chance,”’ Cicuto said. “‘It’s going to make or break you.’

“I thought he responded to the challenge and did a tremendous job.”

Dallas duds: A Pioneer dressed up as a Cowboy for the Cal Lutheran game. Cal State Hayward defensive back David Parker’s uniform pants were lost by the airlines on the flight down from the Bay Area so he donned a pair of old Dallas Cowboys practice pants. The Cowboys leave some of their old equipment at Cal Lutheran.

Apparently, there was some residual losing left in the pants. Parker and the Hayward team (0-5) lost, 26-14, to keep pace with the Cowboys (0-6), who lost 31-14 to San Francisco.

Thinking big: After a hard-fought 34-33 loss to Northridge and a 26-14 win over Cal State Hayward, Bob Shoup, Cal Lutheran’s coach, has taken a new perspective on the season.

“I just feel we’ll be in all three of these ballgames,” Shoup said. “I didn’t feel early in the season that we would be able to stay with Northridge, Santa Clara and Southern Utah. Now I think we’ll be competitive in all three.”

Confidence builder: Glendale College’s 44-41 victory over Santa Monica last Saturday did more than simply improve the Vaqueros’ record to 3-1-1 overall and 3-0-1 in the Western State Conference.

Since routine victories over weak Pierce and Compton teams had followed a season-opening loss to Pasadena and a tie against defending national champion Bakersfield, Saturday’s victory over Santa Monica was the first time that Glendale had beaten a strong opponent.

“We played a good team in Pasadena and lost and a good team in Bakersfield and tied,” Glendale Coach John Cicuto said. “We’ve now proved that we can beat a good team and I think that’s a important step for our players in terms of confidence.”

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