COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : Early Exit From Soccer Finals No Reflection on Master’s Play

As if The Master’s College soccer team didn’t have enough motivation, a Boca Raton, Fla., newspaper added fuel to the fire by ripping the Mustangs in its preview of the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics national tournament.

The author of the story, Vin Mannix, sports editor of the Boca Raton News, “just shredded us in print,” Master’s Coach Mark Schubert said. “The story in the paper said that we didn’t belong in the tournament and we were wasting the district’s money by flying out to Florida. They also said we’d be home for Thanksgiving.”

And it got worse.

At a pre-tournament banquet last Sunday, snickers were audible from the audience when Master’s was introduced with a record of 9-10-3. The Mustangs, champion of the NAIA District 3, were seeded last in the 12-team field.

“You could hear people making comments,” Schubert said. “But we knew we belonged here.”

Master’s proved itself worthy by compiling a 1-0-1 record in pool play.

The Mustangs tied top-seeded and defending champion West Virginia Wesleyan, 1-1, Monday, then crushed eighth-seeded William Carey (Miss.), 5-1, Tuesday.

Unfortunately for the Mustangs, West Virginia Wesleyan defeated William Carey, 5-0, Wednesday to earn the pool’s berth in the semifinals on the basis of fewer goals allowed.

Despite the outcome, Master’s will spend Thanksgiving in Florida--the team was unable to get a flight home until Saturday.

The chain: Coach Pete Cassidy carries around a chain that has 20 links, representing the 14 players and six coaches and managers that make up the Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team.

“Some of them will have to shoot for the good of the team, some of them will have to pass,” Cassidy said. “They all have a function for the good of the team. We are linked together.

“If you take the chain apart we are nothing.”

Changing places: Since Eugene Humphrey left the Northridge basketball team to concentrate on his studies, no one has missed him more than former teammate Keith Gibbs.

Gibbs has been moved from shooting guard to point guard, replacing Humphrey.

“I’ve had trouble with it,” Gibbs said. “I don’t shoot as much. They still want me to shoot, which has given me confidence.”

Backcourt mate Kyle Kerlegan seems comfortable with the switch.

“I think he plays the point very well,” Kerlegan said of Gibbs. “He is more offensive-minded than most points.

“Not that we are better off without Eugene, but we are adjusting well.”

Last hurrah: Although Northridge lists Kerlegan as a junior, he has only one year of eligibility remaining.

In 1986, Kerlegan was redshirted as a freshman at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La. The following year he attended the school but didn’t play basketball. In 1988, he transferred to Canada (Calif.) College and played two years.

CSUN won a recruiting battle for him over New Mexico State, St. Mary’s and Loyola Marymount.

Last add men’s basketball: Gibbs is looking forward to playing in front of big crowds during Northridge’s three-game swing against Colorado, Colorado State and New Mexico State.

“I’ve never played in an environment with everybody against you,” Gibbs said. “I’m looking forward to getting booed.”

The next Freddie?: Moorpark’s Freddie Bradley made a splash when he led the country in scoring as a freshman, but Glendale’s Bobby Webster, despite operating in the shadow of the record-breaking Bradley, has put together a freshman season as good as Bradley’s.

Webster has rushed for 1,360 yards and scored 22 touchdowns. Bradley had 1,266 and 23 touchdowns as a freshman. Webster averages 5.6 yards a carry; Bradley had a 6.3 average.

Only time will tell whether Webster will eclipse Bradley’s marks, but he is off to a good start.

Keeping tabs: Dana Jones, a 6-6 freshman from North Hollywood High, will be in Pepperdine’s lineup when the Waves open their men’s basketball season Friday against Montana State in the first round of the Coors Light Classic in Fresno. Rick Welch, a junior from Westlake High, will start at guard.

Devin Hurst, a freshman from Simi Valley High, is a top reserve on fifth-ranked Pepperdine’s water polo team, which plays UCLA on Friday night in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Hurst, a driver, has 12 goals this season.

Bobby Kim, a former El Camino Real High catcher, has left Pierce College to pursue a professional baseball career in his native Korea. Junior college players cannot sign with U. S. professional teams during the school year, but as Pierce co-Coach Bob Lofrano says, “What a unique situation.”

E.J. Pape has left the Northridge baseball team and transferred to The Master’s College where he plans to play next spring. Pape was an All-Western State Conference infielder at Valley College last season.

No mas: She has earned All-American honors in each of her four cross-country seasons at Northridge, but Darcy Arreola will not pursue the sport at the national level.

Arreola, the 10th-ranked 1,500-meter runner in the country in 1989, said that by not running cross-country, she will be better prepared for track in upcoming seasons. “I think I’ll run better in track when I don’t have to worry about cross-country,” she said. “I’ll be able to train hard all fall and winter.

“I won’t have to worry about what races are coming up, or about easing up for races like nationals. Because of that, I think I’ll be much stronger when track starts.”

Honor roll: Peter Oviatt of Humboldt State and Derek Kite of Lubbock Christian College, both former area standouts, earned All-American honors in national championship cross-country meets last Saturday.

Oviatt, a 1988 graduate of Agoura High, placed 18th in the NCAA Division II meet in Arcata, Calif., running 30 minutes 30 seconds over the 10,000-meter course.

Kite, a 1990 graduate of Camarillo High, placed sixth in the NAIA meet in Kenosha, Wis., timing 25:13 over the 8,000-meter course. Lubbock defeated seven-time defending champion Adams State (Colo.), 33-57, for the team title.

Schedule woes: The schedule gives the Northridge women’s basketball team a break.

And Coach Janet Martin doesn’t want it.

The Matadors will be idle for a 17-day stretch in January. “The schedule I don’t dread,” she said. “It’s the big break I’m worried about. That’s when you battle mental problems and fatigue.”

The break, from Jan. 6-22, illustrates the difficulty independents--teams without conference affiliation--have finding opponents in January and February when most teams are involved in conference play.

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

NCAA ALL-PURPOSE YARDAGE LEADERS

Tailback Albert Fann of Cal State Northridge finished his collegiate career with all-purpose yardage numbers that put him in some fast company.

Name School Yrs Yds Johnny Bailey Texas A&I; ‘86-89 7,803 Kenny Gamble Colgate ‘84-87 7,623 Howard Rndlph-Mcn ‘68-72 7,564 Stephens /Louisville N. McCallum Navy ‘81-85 7,172 Albert Fann CSUN ‘87-90 7,032 Curtis Delgardo Portland St. ‘86-90 6,942 Darrin Nelson Stanford ‘77-81 6,885 Tony Dorsett Pitt ‘73-76 6,615

Note: Includes regular-season yardage only.