THE COLLEGES : Accident Sends CLU Kicker to the Sideline

Greg Maw, Cal Lutheran’s senior kicker, had a particularly frightful Halloween. He cut the tips of his middle and index fingers on his left hand while carving a pumpkin Monday night and will be forced to miss the Kingsmen’s season finale Saturday against Azusa Pacific.

Normally a hand injury wouldn’t be particularly relevant for a kicker, but Maw’s laceration was so severe that he will need surgery Monday and will skip the game as a precaution against infection.

Maw has converted six of nine field-goal attempts and has a long kick of 41 yards. Dave Fick, a part-time punter, and Espen Hosein, who handles the kickoffs for CLU, are candidates to replace Maw.

Tidal wave: Valley College’s water polo team has risen from great depths. The Monarchs were 8-15 last season and had only three wins in Western State Conference play.

But a year later, Valley is 14-9 overall, 5-2 in conference play and hoping for a state tournament wild-card berth going into today’s match against Pierce.

Pierce’s only two WSC losses have come to Cuesta, the state’s top-ranked team.

Coach Bill Krause credits an extra year of experience for the turnaround.

“They were good players in high school,” Krause said, “but that extra year of experience and working together during the summer has really paid off.”

Setter Dave Scott, driver Lawrence Ocon (a transfer from USC) and defenders Eric Dolce and Scott Dolce have been instrumental in the team’s rebound.

Goalkeeper Angelo Fojico, a freshman, has recorded more than 100 saves this season.

“He’s kept us in a lot of games,” Krause said. “It helps to have someone like Angelo on defense to cover you. He’s a real talent.”

Dawn of an era: Mike Dunlap, formerly an assistant coach under George Raveling at USC, is about to begin his first season as men’s basketball coach at Cal Lutheran.

He brought with him an idea that could fast become a Kingsmen tradition.

Dunlap has Cal Lutheran practicing each day starting at 6 a.m. He says Kingsmen players concentrate better when they work out early in the morning.

Playing the odds: With a possible NCAA Division II playoff berth on the line, Saturday night’s California Collegiate Athletic Assn. soccer match between Cal State Northridge and Cal State Bakersfield at North Campus Stadium figures to be close.

Followers of trends and streaks, however, will be betting on the Matadors, who have never lost to the Roadrunners.

Northridge, runner-up in the past two NCAA Division II championships, is 21-0 against Bakersfield, including a 1-0 victory earlier this season.

Scoring drought: Sherdrick Bonner’s touchdown pass to Billy Nealy with 21 seconds left in last Saturday’s game against Santa Clara was the first the Northridge quarterback had thrown in more than 16 full quarters of action.

Bonner’s last scoring pass, also to Nealy, came with 4:12 left in CSUN’s Sept. 30 game against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Ratings game: Northridge’s seventh-ranked women’s volleyball team dropped previously top-ranked UC Riverside off its perch in the NCAA Division II rankings this week. Riverside is now ranked fourth.

But the Lady Matadors won’t have much time to rest on their laurels. Northridge will compete in the Air Force Academy tournament this week, along with 11 other nationally ranked teams.

Chapman, Riverside, Cal State Bakersfield, Nebraska-Omaha, West Texas State, Regis (Colo.) and top-ranked Cal State Sacramento are top-10 teams competing.

Air Force and St. Cloud (Minn.) are in CSUN’s three-team pool.

Double date: Last Saturday’s football game against Whittier is the first of two Occidental will play against the Poets this season.

Under Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rules, each team plays one opponent twice. So Occidental and Whittier will square off again Nov. 11 at Occidental.

“I don’t like it,” Occidental Coach Dale Widolff said before the first game, “but I like it over the alternative, which is either spending a lot of money to play someone out of the area or staying close to home and playing Division II schools, which are scholarship schools.”

He is probably even less enthused with the idea since the Tigers were upset, 26-16, the first time around.

Occidental (5-2 overall, 3-1 in SCIAC games) will play host to Redlands (4-3, 4-0) on Saturday.

Occidental can guarantee itself a share of the SCIAC championship by defeating the Bulldogs. But the Tigers will still have a score to settle against Whittier.

Tighten up: Glendale’s 62-26 victory over Harbor last Saturday pleased Vaquero Coach John Cicuto, but he had no excuses for a defensive unit that surrendered so many points to a team that had been shut out three times this season.

“Our defense is struggling with peaks and valleys,” Cicuto said. “They play hard, but mentally they break down and it kind of puts us into a bind.

“We can’t rely on our offense to score 40 or 50 points a game. It’s just not going to happen against the good teams.”

A team like Moorpark for instance.

Glendale (4-2-1 overall, 3-1-1 in Western State Conference play) will travel to Moorpark on Saturday for a game against the Raiders, who boast the top defense in the state.

“I don’t see any weaknesses in their offense or defense,” Cicuto said.

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