THE COLLEGES / MIKE HISERMAN : CSUN Offense Takes On an Entertaining Quality Despite a Losing Season

The Cal State Northridge football team is as interesting a loser as it was a winner.

Coach Bob Burt had a school-record five consecutive winning seasons before this one, but the Matadors, with a grind-it-out, ball-control offense, often were boring.

This season the Matadors are 3-6, but at least they have entertainment value.

Consider wide receiver Cornell Ward.

Ward is third on the team with 25 receptions for 228 yards and has not caught a touchdown pass.

He has, however, thrown for five.

On a variety of reverse options and laterals, Ward has attempted six passes and completed five for scores covering 187 yards. His quarterback rating is a nifty 620.1, or 457 points higher than that of Brigham Young’s Ty Detmer, last season’s Heisman Trophy winner.

Ward’s most recent touchdown pass, against Portland State last Saturday, covered 24 yards. It was thrown out of an unorthodox “Daffy Duck” formation in which a receiver and four linemen line up next to one sideline and two receivers are set against the other sideline. Additionally, the quarterback, tailback, center and another receiver are stationed near the middle of the field.

Northridge borrowed the strategy from Jim Faesal, who coached Pat Degnan, the Matadors’ assistant head coach, when he was the quarterback at Utah.

Tom Mason, Portland’s defensive coordinator, apparently was not impressed.

After the game, he told a reporter from the Portland Oregonian that any team that would attempt such a tactic was “looking at a last-ditch effort. They’re saying, ‘We can’t beat them playing football. We’re going to go to tricks and gadgets.’ ”

Perhaps lost on Mason was that the ploy just happened to work. At least for a while.

Northridge used the formation three times, scoring once when quarterback Damone Scott fired a lateral to Ward, who in turn hooked up with receiver Adam McKinney on a crossing pattern. Later, another march by the Matadors was halted when Scott threw an interception after attempting an off-balance pass instead of running to daylight upfield.

Burt offered no apologies for resorting to such tactics. Rather, he gave the impression that Northridge would design its entire offense around assorted cartoon characters if it helped win football games.

“If something works, you do it,” he said. “The reason we did it was to take advantage of Damone Scott’s ability as a scrambler. He’s not a great passer, but he can sprint out and throw the ball, and when he does he can cause a defense a lot of problems.

“We’re just trying everything in our power to win.”

Tonight at Cal State Sacramento, Northridge will conclude its season against the 7-2 Hornets. You never know, Burt might unveil a run-and-shoot called the “Yosemite Sam” in this one.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s gonna be the Yogi Bear!” Burt said, attempting an impression.

He had better be careful: Usually following a Yogi is a Boo-Boo.

Illegal contact: The NCAA recently placed the Texas El Paso men’s basketball program on probation for three years, citing recruiting misconduct and other violations.

Among the broken rules, the NCAA Committee on Infractions determined that “at approximately 7 a.m. (on) April 8, 1987, the head men’s basketball coach (Don Haskins) made an in-person, off-campus recruiting contact with a prospective student-athlete during a non-contact period on the National Letter of Intent signing date.”

That player: Shelton Boykin, then a senior at San Fernando High, now a senior at Northridge.

Boykin played one season at UTEP, ran track the following school year, then transferred to Valley College. He signed with Northridge after his sophomore season at Valley and averaged 6.9 points and 6.8 rebounds for the Matadors last season.

Briefly: Bad news for the Antelope Valley College football team. The Marauders cracked the JC Athletic Bureau’s Top 10 this week, moving from No. 11 to No. 8. The past three times Antelope Valley made the Top 10 it lost its next game. The Marauders (7-1, 5-1 in the Foothill Conference) will play at Mt. San Jacinto (5-3, 4-2) at 1 today. . . .

Freddie Bradley’s state junior college record for career all-purpose yardage lasted less than one season. Bradley, who now plays for Arkansas, gained 4,124 all-purpose yards for Moorpark in the 1989 and ’90 seasons. Jason Sehorn, a sophomore from Shasta College, has 4,211. . . .

Lost in a four-touchdown, 214-yard rushing performance by LaShante Parker last week was kicker Steve Szekely’s effort in Pierce’s 47-37 win over Santa Monica. Szekely made five conversions and field goals of 37, 38, 39 and 49 yards. Szekely, a sophomore from Bell-Jeff, has made all 19 conversions, is seven of seven in field-goal tries and is seventh in the Western State Conference in scoring. . . .

The Northridge football team should have at least two players make the All-Western Football Conference first team: defensive tackle Alo Sila and wide receiver Paul Peters. Peters’ pass-catching numbers (28 catches, 447 yards, four touchdowns) are not overly impressive, but he is far and away the conference’s best big-play return man. He has a 96-yard punt return and a 95-yard kickoff return--both for touchdowns--to his credit.

Linebacker Ken Vaughn is Northridge’s other honors candidate. He tops the Matadors in tackles with 117. . . .

It should come as no surprise that Southern Utah’s Zed Robinson leads WFC running backs in rushing. Robinson, who has gained 1,676 yards in 237 carries, was signed, sealed and almost delivered to Illinois before he was declared academically ineligible for Division I.