Ventura Football Team Gets a Kick Out of Rieman

At 24, Tory Rieman might be considered the old man on the Ventura College football team.

But Saturday night against West Los Angeles, he was the come-through kid.

Rieman made a 32-yard field goal with two seconds left to give the Pirates a 49-47 victory.

“Everyone was saying, ‘Thank God for the little surfer,’ ” Rieman said. “When we were on that last drive, I knew that this was what I came back for. This is what I play for.”

Rieman, who graduated from Ventura High in 1986, was a member of the Ventura College football team that fall--although he played in only one game--before starting to work full time as a carpenter the following summer.

He contemplated a return to school last year and when he met Ventura College Coach Dick James at a Ventura High football game last season, he decided he wanted to kick again.

“I really got a good vibe from him,” said Rieman, whose stepbrother, Trevor Rumsey, is the Ventura High quarterback. “I’ve never had a coach who is as team oriented, who cares as much about the team as him.”

Despite the age difference, Rieman said he is comfortable with his teammates.

“I had to come back and prove myself,” Rieman said. “But I never felt out of place. I think that once you’re at the college level, everybody is in the same boat. You’re all working toward the same goal.”

PASSING FANCY

What in the name of Freddie Bradley is going on at Moorpark?

The Raiders, the fifth-ranked team in the J. C. Athletic Bureau’s state poll, are off to a 2-0 start. And they are moving the ball as effectively through the air as they are on the ground.

Last season, Moorpark averaged 492 yards a game in offense--including 352 on the ground. Bradley, who is playing for Arkansas, gained 2,123 yards and scored 32 touchdowns that season.

In two games this season, Moorpark is averaging 422 yards a game, and the Raiders have actually thrown for more yardage than they have rushed for, 449-395.

Quarterback Corey Tucker (18 of 30 for 364 yards, three touchdowns) and wide receiver Curtis Marsh (eight receptions for 197 yards) have been the ringleaders of the passing attack.

LESSON LEARNED

Carla DuPuis, the Cal Lutheran women’s volleyball coach, thought she had taken the last of Vernon Scheffel’s tests a long time ago. But when La Sierra came to play Cal Lutheran last Tuesday, DuPuis found otherwise.

La Sierra is DuPuis’ undergraduate alma mater and Scheffel, its coach, is DuPuis’ former physical education teacher and boss. Scheffel was an instructor at Atlantic Union College when DuPuis attended the school in the early 1970s.

DuPuis obviously learned her lessons well. She guided the Kingsmen to a lopsided victory, 15-3, 15-10, 15-4.

DuPuis and Scheffel first met at Atlantic Union College--located in South Lancaster, Mass.--where DuPuis studied health, physical education and recreation for two years. DuPuis attended La Sierra for the final two years of her undergraduate education, and after she earned her degree, Scheffel hired her as a physical-education instructor at AUC.

“It’s good to shine in front of your old teacher,” DuPuis said.

For the Kingsmen (5-6), it was good that they began to shine, period. Cal Lutheran will begin its inaugural foray into Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matches Friday against visiting Redlands.

BRIEFLY . . .

Pierce tailback LaShante Parker had his string of 100-yard rushing games snapped at four in Saturday night’s 46-21 loss to Santa Barbara. Parker, a sophomore from Palmdale High, gained 88 yards in 16 carries and scored a touchdown.

He had rushed for 555 yards in 92 carries (6.0 average) and scored four touchdowns during his streak. . . .

The Northridge football team is averaging only 11.1 points a game. Although the nine points scored against Central Oklahoma on Saturday was their lowest point total of the season, the Matadors gained a season-high 274 yards.

NO CONTROVERSY

Northridge Coach Bob Burt said that there would be no quarterback controversy as long as Marty Fisher and Damone Scott did not question the decisions of himself and quarterbacks coach Pat Degnan.

“If Coach D (Degnan) pulls me out and puts in Damone, it is OK,” said Fisher, who completed only three of 10 passes for 17 yards in the first half. “I was struggling, I admit it.”

Scott started to warm up in the second half, but Fisher heated up as well.

In the second half, Fisher completed eight of 12 passes for 130 yards.

PLEASANT SURPRISE

When fullback Anthony Nicholson left the game late in the third quarter because of an aggravated left ankle sprain, Burt thought that was the last he would see of him.

“I thought he was out for the game,” Burt said. “Next thing I know he was in there. He made two big runs.”

Both were third-down conversions, the latter a five-yard touchdown run.

“I just had to forget about the pain,” Nicholson said. “I just wanted to play.”

IN A RUSH

No one has emerged as the successor to Albert Fann, Northridge’s all-time rushing leader, but a pattern has developed. The starter each week is the leading rusher from the previous week. So far, Victor DeVaughn has started the first and third games, and Jess Garner has started the second and fourth games.

If the pattern holds, Bill Harris will start Oct. 12 against Davis. Harris, a junior transfer from Harbor College, ran for 63 yards against Central Oklahoma--the best single-game effort by a Northridge tailback this season.

“Every week it is a different guy,” Burt said. “It is a good problem to have.”

Staff writers Theresa Munoz, John Ortega and Wendy Witherspoon contributed to this notebook.