COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : Brown Tackling Blocking Duties as Top Tight End for Colorado

When Sean Brown arrived in Boulder in August, he found himself listed fourth on the depth chart among University of Colorado tight ends.

After two-a-day practices he was listed second, and, a month later, the former Granada Hills High standout had earned the starting position.

“When I first got here they had me learning a lot of plays,” the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Brown said. “It was mind-boggling. At first, I couldn’t learn it. It was tough on me. But eventually, I got more comfortable. It hurt me not being here for spring ball. It really set me back.”

Brown had no choice though. He was completing his associate of arts degree at Valley College.

Although he is primarily a blocker for wishbone quarterback Darian Hagan, Brown put aside the dirty work briefly Saturday to catch four passes for 51 yards in the Buffaloes’ 32-23 win over Oklahoma.

“(Blocking) doesn’t bother me,” Brown said. “It did at first. Then I realized if I have a shot at the pros I have to be able to block.”

Brown is not accustomed to the blocking, much less the option.

As a Granada Hills senior, he was featured in the offense, catching 59 passes for 860 yards and 11 touchdowns.

In his first year at Valley he made 39 catches for 605 yards, and, despite missing five games last season because of a leg injury Brown earned JUCO All-American honors with 21 catches for 360 yards.

Eyes have it: It has been said that hindsight is 20-20. Brent Carder, football coach at Antelope Valley College, probably would agree.

Antelope Valley led Desert, 12-7, with 1 minute 21 seconds left last Saturday when Carder decided to fake a punt on fourth and three from the Desert 40-yard line. Upback Steve Miller was dropped for a three-yard loss and two plays later, with 47 seconds remaining, Desert scored on a 51-yard pass and won, 15-12.

“(The fake punt) was something that we felt was a good call,” said Carder, in his 21st season at Antelope Valley. “To be honest, I didn’t think there was any way that they were going to drive 60 yards on us in the final minute and a half with their second-string quarterback.

“Turns out I was wrong.”

Late-night television: Saturday’s Western Football Conference championship game between Cal State Northridge and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will appear on a tape-delay basis on several television stations in Southern and Central California.

KADY Channel 63 in Oxnard will broadcast the game, which will be shown at 11 p.m. Ventura County Cablevision and Comcast Cable of Simi Valley are among the stations expected to air the broadcast.

Title tilt: Northridge has shared the Western Football Conference championship before. In 1983, the Matadors finished 2-1 and tied with Santa Clara in what was then a four-team conference.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last won a WFC championship in 1982, when it finished 4-0 in the conference’s first season.

Trivial trivia: In the nine seasons they have played in the WFC, Northridge and San Luis Obispo have identical 22-20 records in conference games.

Stats incredible: If Moorpark College ever publishes its record book, Freddie Bradley should earn royalties as a co-author. He could go on a book-signing tour as well, but his name already will be all over it.

With 283 rushing yards last week against Harbor, he pushed his season total to 1,407, surpassing Johnny Taylor’s total of 1,376 in 1974, and his all-purpose rushing to 1,758, exceeding Tyrone Moore’s 1,668 all-purpose rushing yards in 1984.

Bradley also has eclipsed career records in both categories. He has 2,677 rushing yards, bettering Taylor’s 2,579, and 3,454 all-purpose yards, far surpassing Moore’s 2,719. With 254 points Bradley already has shattered Dan Russell’s career scoring record of 142.

Stat watch: Northridge--CSUN had 355 yards in offense compared to Santa Clara’s 51, marking only the third time this season that the Matadors have outgained their opponent. The others were Central (Okla.) State and Portland State. . . .

Santa Clara came into the Northridge game averaging 359.9 yards a game. The Broncos were held to season lows in rushing yardage (-7), passing yardage (58), total yardage (51), first downs (4), average yards per play (0.9), passes completed (5) and they were shutout for the second time this season. . . .

Santa Monica City quarterback Jeff Barrett, a former Burroughs High standout, passed for 260 yards last week against Bakersfield to become the school’s all-time passing and total offense leader.

Barrett has passed for 3,421 yards and has 3,550 yards of total offense in his career. Barrett pushed his career record for touchdown passes to 33 with two more against Bakersfield. He is on pace to break school season records for passing yardage, touchdowns and total offense and is four short of the career completion record. . . .

Thomas Reimer, Antelope Valley’s tight end, almost doubled his season pass reception total in Saturday’s 15-12 loss to Desert. Reimer, who entered the game with nine catches for 204 yards and two touchdowns, had seven receptions for 107 yards and a score against Desert. . . .

Tailback Bobby Webster of Glendale has tied the school’s single-season record for rushing touchdowns with 14. With 1,007 yards rushing in seven games, Webster is also closing in on the single-season rushing total of 1,343 yards, set by Henry Longoria in 1975. . . .

Antelope Valley has given up 2,012 yards in eight games--1,006 on the ground, 1,006 through the air. . . .

Cornerback John Johnson of Antelope Valley has intercepted at least one pass in three consecutive games. Johnson, who has seven interceptions this season, twice has had two interceptions in a game.

Un-Wise: Santa Clara’s Aron Wise rushed 21 times for 35 yards against Northridge with a long gain of seven. He came into the game averaging 125.9 yards a game, sixth-best in Division II.

Mr. Clutch: In the first three quarters of Northridge’s game at Santa Clara, Matador quarterback Sherdrick Bonner completed only one pass of more than 10 yards to a wide receiver. In the fourth period alone he connected on five.

Twin killing: At her current pace, senior middle blocker Kathleen Dixon of Northridge has a shot at 1,300 career kills. Dixon is 123 kills shy of that figure with five matches remaining. Additionally, CSUN likely will earn a berth in the Women’s Intercollegiate Volleyball tournament, a postseason event for the top teams that neither advance to nor earn independent berths in the NCAA tournament.

Dixon trails her twin, Marianne, by eight kills this season but leads Matador players in digs with 273 and blocks with 93 (13 solo and 80 assisted).

Getting a leg up: Sean Cheevers’ debut as the Cal State Long Beach kicker was less than encouraging. His only kick in a 59-0 loss to Clemson was returned 98 yards for a touchdown.

Since then, Cheevers’ and Long Beach’s fortunes have improved considerably. Cheevers, a former Thousand Oaks High and Moorpark College standout, kicked three field goals, including the 20-yard game-winner with six seconds left, and four extra points in a 37-35 victory over Cal State Fullerton last Saturday.

Cheevers, a walk-on who turned down a scholarship offer at UNLV, said that he will broach the idea of being put on scholarship at the end of the season. He is the leading scorer on the team with 50 points.

Cheevers has made 10 of 12 field-goal attempts and all 20 of his point-after attempts. He ranks fifth in the Big West Conference in scoring.

Given the boot: Chris Afarian, a freshman from Notre Dame High, set up Santa Clara’s only touchdown last week against Northridge.

His 49-yard punt in the second quarter pinned the Matadors at their own three-yard line, setting up Mark Modeste’s short interception return for a touchdown two plays later.

But later, Afarian helped give three points back to the Matadors. With 1:30 remaining in the game, he shanked a 21-yard punt that gave CSUN the ball at the Bronco 41.

A minute later, Abo Velasco kicked the game-winning 34-yard field goal for Northridge.

Times have changed: When he left Glendale College in the spring, David Swanson considered competing in the high jump at UCLA or UC Irvine. But he also wanted to play basketball so he made recruiting visits to St. Mary’s, Eastern Washington, UC Riverside and Cal Poly Pomona. Finally, the former Alemany High standout wound up where he started in 1987--Northridge.

After so much indecision Swanson could not be blamed for second-guessing himself, but he has no regrets about returning to Northridge to pursue both sports.

“I’m really happy with my decision,” Swanson said. “We have a lot of great athletes and people on this team. No one is in it for themselves.”

Cross-country shorts: Teresa Poy of Cal State Los Angeles, who transferred from Cal State Northridge in 1988, placed fifth in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championships at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas last Saturday.

Poy ran 17 minutes 39 seconds over the 5,000-meter course as the Golden Eagles finished second to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 16-51, in the team standings.

On the run II: Jeff Korn, Eliazar Herrera and Sven Haug helped the UCLA men’s cross-country team to a fifth-place finish in the Pacific 10 Conference championships at Stanford on Saturday.

Korn, a junior from Birmingham High, was the Bruins’ No. 1 runner, finishing 19th in 25:23 over the five-mile course.

Herrera, a freshman from Hoover, was UCLA’s No. 2 runner (28th in 25:37) and Haug, another junior from Birmingham, was the Bruins’ No. 4 man (33rd in 25:59).

Staff writers Mike Hiserman, Theresa Munoz, John Ortega and Brendan Healey contributed to this notebook.

CENTURY OF SUCCESS Tailback Bobby Webster has been an integral part of Glendale College’s success this season. When he has been held to less than 100 yards rushing, the Vaqueros have lost. When he has rushed for more than 100 yards, they have won. Here is a game-by-game breakdown of Webster’s season.

Glendale Wins

Opponent/Score Atts Yds TDs Southwest, 21-12 30 143 2 Valley, 37-27 33 186 4 Pierce, 35-22 34 170 2 Ventura, 49-24 24 210 3 Compton, 28-7 25 130 2

Glendale Losses

Opponent/Score Atts Yds TDs Pasadena, 7-17 19 91 1 Bakersfield, 3-31 13 77 0