CSUN Names Ward Backup Quarterback

With three down and one to go, the Cal State Northridge football team has added a fifth quarterback.

Cornell Ward, a senior wide receiver, will be backup quarterback in the Matadors’ final two games, Coach Bob Burt said Monday. The starter will be Damone Scott, a junior transfer from Western Michigan.

Marty Fisher, Northridge’s starter, sustained a broken ankle with five minutes remaining in the third quarter during the Matadors’ 56-28 loss to Southern Utah on Saturday. He is out for the season.

Coley Kyman, who was battling with Scott to be Fisher’s understudy, has been sidelined since Sept. 14 with a broken collarbone. Albert Razo, CSUN’s punter and scout team quarterback, is hobbled by a sprained ankle that he sustained last Friday.

Ward, who was a quarterback at Los Angeles High and Compton College, has attempted five passes on reverse-option plays this season, completing four for four touchdowns and 163 yards. He is coming off the best game of his Northridge career as a receiver, catching seven passes for 72 yards against Southern Utah. He is third among Matador receivers this season with 21 catches for 214 yards.

Burt said Ward should have no difficulty making the transition to quarterback.

“He’s been around a long time and he’s very bright,” Burt said. “He’ll be fine if need be, but we are not planning on playing him. If it happens, it happens. We never figured we’d get to five quarterbacks.”

Northridge has one other quarterback on its roster--freshman Bradley Freeman, who still is recovering from a broken collarbone sustained in a high school all-star game in August.

In another development, George Fua, Northridge’s starting left guard, had a magnetic resonance imaging test on Monday.

Fua, who was converted from tight end to guard three weeks ago, is probably out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.

Jack Montes, a junior who has missed all but two games with ankle, knee and hamstring injuries, will replace Fua.