NOTEBOOK : Cal Lutheran Kicker Papike Quickly Gets Routine Down PAT

Alex Papike didn’t need practice to be perfect when the Cal Lutheran football team played Azusa Pacific on Saturday.

Papike, a soccer player, had no opportunity to practice with the Kingsmen football team after he joined it Friday night. But the kicker made his only attempt, an extra point, in a 41-13 loss to the Cougars.

A sophomore reserve in soccer, Papike has become a crucial member of the football team. The Kingsmen had been planning to use defensive lineman Tom Pellegrino for kicking duties.

Soccer Coach George Kuntz said that Kingsmen football coaches had asked if he had any spare kickers and he was glad to help.

“I think that builds a little bridge between the two sports,” Kuntz said. “We won’t hold him back from one or the other. Right now, football needs him a lot.”

Passing fancy: Antelope Valley football Coach Brent Carder denied that he has changed his offensive policy, but it was interesting to note that the Marauders passed the ball 33 times in Saturday night’s 22-15 season-opening victory at San Diego City College.

Antelope Valley has been run-oriented in recent seasons; in 1989, for example, 70% of its offensive plays were rushing attempts. But against San Diego, freshman quarterback Marty Washington completed 14 of 32 passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns--one shy of the team’s total in 1989.

“We never go into a game thinking we’re going to throw the ball a certain number of times,” Carder said. “But on Saturday, we had some success throwing to start the game and it seemed foolish not to keep doing it some.”

Even so, Antelope Valley gained 195 yards in 46 carries, led by tailback Steve Miller with 105 yards in 19 carries.

Practice what you preach: The upbeat mood of Cal State Northridge volleyball Coach Walt Ker belied his disappointment Tuesday night after his team’s loss in four games to UC Santa Barbara, ranked seventh in the country by Volleyball Monthly magazine.

“I preach to my team to learn and let go, and I try to practice what I preach,” Ker said.

Ker could not wait for Wednesday’s practice session and the opportunity to correct the flaws that the Gauchos had exposed.

“John Wooden used to say the best part of coaching is practice,” Ker said of the former UCLA basketball coach. “It has the most impact so it’s true. In a match I only have a certain impact, but in practice I can talk after each repetition. Every practice gives us an opportunity to improve.”

Negative “firsts”: Pierce Coach Bob Enger has been coaching football at one level or another for more than a quarter-century, yet he experienced two firsts Saturday night in the Brahmas’ 32-31 season-opening loss to East Los Angeles. The new experiences:

-- Seeing his team give up a 45-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass at the end of the first half.

-- Losing a game in which his team held an 18-point lead (25-7) in the second quarter.

“I’ve never coached a team that failed to hold that big of a lead, and I’ve never had another team score on a Hail Mary pass before,” Enger said. “We had that pass covered perfectly, but all our guys jumped too early.”

The long touchdown pass from Santiago Alvarez to Kevin Owens not only trimmed the Brahmas’ lead to 25-13 at halftime, it came one play after an East L. A. touchdown had been nullified by a personal-foul penalty.

“That play rejuvenated East L. A. and it really hurt us,” Enger said. “Our kids were really down after that. (East L. A.) seemed to have all the momentum after that.”

Department of ejections: Wide receiver Shannon Culver was either kicked off the Pierce football team or declared academically ineligible, depending on your perspective.

Culver, who had 35 receptions for 556 yards and four touchdowns last season, was kicked off the team for disciplinary reasons a couple of weeks ago, according to Enger.

Shortly thereafter, however, it was discovered that Culver had passed only 23 units during the previous school year, one shy of the minimum needed to compete in sports.

Family affair: Jay Rich, Culver’s replacement, had a productive game against East L. A., catching three passes for 44 yards and a touchdown.

Pierce quarterback Jamie Grossman and Rich, who were teammates at Cleveland High, are cousins.

High goals: A pair of highly ranked men’s soccer teams will meet Monday when The Master’s College, ranked 14th, travels to No. 11 Southern Methodist. Of course, Master’s is ranked in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics poll and SMU is an NCAA Division I school.

“I think no matter who we play, they’ll have to work to beat us,” said Master’s Coach Mark Schubert, who has scheduled four Division I teams this season.

Hard to hold: Vanessa Martin, Cal Lutheran’s high-scoring women’s soccer player, recently booted a practice shot so hard it ripped one of goalie Jody Sedillo’s gloves. Sedillo suffered injured ligaments in a thumb and will be sidelined indefinitely.

Ballcarriers wanted: “Essentially, we don’t have any running backs,” Cal Lutheran Coach Joe Harper said after watching his team net 40 yards rushing against Azusa Pacific.

Cal Lutheran’s starting backfield, Jay Weber and Brian Kane, finished with 10 yards in 12 carries, and by the end of the game Harper was using wide receivers-wingbacks-running backs Len Bradley and Cassidy O’Sullivan as ballcarriers. They finished with 19 yards in five carries.

“They’re all the same,” Harper said. “They’re all receivers and running backs.”

Of course, the passing game wasn’t much better. Freshman quarterback Feliciano Ramirez, pressed into service when junior quarterback Javier Ramirez was declared ineligible the night before the game because his eligibility paper work was not finished, completed three passes and had three (including a two-point conversion pass) intercepted.

Passing game: A change in strategy helped the Northridge soccer team end its two-game scoreless streak with three goals against Oregon State on Sunday.

“I said to the team, ‘Look, we want to play our game--not kickball, not long ball,’ ” Coach Marwan Ass’ad said. “We spent two years learning to play the passing game, learning to play in tight places. If we lose, the hell with it. But if we’re going to lose, let’s lose playing our game.”

Bruised Gossen: Washington State quarterback Brad Gossen, a former Westlake High standout, was sacked four times and knocked down three times after he released the ball in the Cougars’ 34-13 loss to Wyoming on Saturday.

Gossen was booed by the Martin Stadium crowd in Pullman, Wash., after throwing an interception and completing 13 of 25 passes for 143 yards. His replacement, Aaron Garcia, completed only two of 12 passes for 84 yards. He threw two interceptions but also had a 70-yard touchdown pass.

A Davey O’Brien Award nominee (for the nation’s top college quarterback), Gossen threw for 238 yards and two touchdowns in a season-opening win over Texas Christian on Sept. 1.

He needs to regain his touch quickly because Washington State will take on fifth-ranked Brigham Young Saturday in Provo, Utah.

Back in the race: Rob Weinerth, 21, who placed sixth for Buena High in the 1987 Channel League cross-country finals, will compete for Ventura this fall after not running during his first two years at the school.

His sister, Joan, 19, led the CSUN women’s basketball team in assists and steals (co-leader) as a freshman last season despite missing three games because of an injury.

Shedding the albatross: The Cal Lutheran volleyball team won its first match of the season Friday and broke a 22-match losing streak dating to 1988. The Regals beat Mt. St. Mary’s, 15-10, 9-15, 15-5, in the Whittier College Invitational.

Staff writers Brendan Healey, John Ortega, Kirby Lee, and Theresa Munoz contributed to this notebook.