Scott Passed Up Opportunity at Northridge

Damone Scott quit the Cal State Northridge team because he objected to a lack of playing time and his No. 3 standing on the quarterback depth chart.

Depending on backup Coley Kyman’s recovery, Scott might have played had he stayed.

Kyman, who took over for struggling starter Marty Fisher in the fourth quarter of last Saturday’s 14-0 loss to Central Oklahoma, sustained a partially separated right (throwing) shoulder.

Kyman has not practiced this week and is questionable for Saturday’s road game against Idaho, a Division I-AA team ranked sixth nationally.

If Kyman does not recover by game time, punter Albert Razo will serve as backup quarterback. Freshman Rino Marconi will be the No. 3 quarterback, although Coach Bob Burt would prefer that Marconi declare 1992 as his redshirt season.

Scott, meanwhile, plans to graduate in May with a degree in kinesiology and hopes to gain a tryout with a Canadian Football League team.

“I don’t wish anything bad on the team,” Scott said. “I hope they have a good year. It was a good move coming here (to CSUN), but things just didn’t work out like I planned.

“This (decision) relieved a lot of stress. I’d come home upset and only my little girl would make me happy. I always knew school would carry me through.”

PLAYING HURT

Linebacker Lidge Proutt sacked Central Oklahoma quarterback Mark Reiland for a seven-yard loss last Saturday, but it is possible that Proutt felt more pain than Reiland.

Proutt, a senior transfer from the University of the Pacific, is playing with a broken middle finger on his left hand and a broken ring finger on his right hand.

“Every single play, pain shoots up my left hand,” Proutt said.

But it has not stopped the former Dorsey High standout. He simply wears a splint on each finger and wraps them in a mound of tape.

“I love the game and it’s my last year,” Proutt said. “As long as I can run, I can play.”

MAGIC TAPE

At first glance, it appears that Northridge punt returner Michael Brown also is playing in pain.

But the tape he wears across his nose is not there to protect a deviated septum. In fact, it has no medical purpose.

“If I don’t have the tape on, I feel powerless,” said Brown, a transfer from Cal State Fullerton.

Brown began taping his nose in junior high. By the time he played for Pasadena High, the tape became his trademark.

“I used to bark when I made a tackle so they called me, ‘Dog,’ ” Brown said. “And they called my tape my ‘dog collar.’ ”

NEW LINE

In response to the Matadors’ sorry running game against Central Oklahoma, center Greg Sorensen and guard Kevin Bess will be replaced on the offensive line this week by Scott Norman and Jose Casillas.

“We want to give them a chance to show what they can do,” Burt said. “I don’t like the way the line played and the worst were Sorensen and Bess. They needed a wake-up call. If they (Norman and Casillas) play better, they’ll stay in. If they don’t, Sorensen and Bess will get another chance. We’ll work until we have five offensive linemen who can get the job done.”

GETTING PHYSICAL

Northridge senior free safety Gerald Ponder attributes his 10 solo tackles against Central Oklahoma to getting more physical.

Ponder, who earned defensive-player-of-the-week honors, said he was resorting too much to finesse. “You don’t get to lift (weights) as much during the season so I found myself easing off a bit, and some of the other (defensive backs) were joking around, saying I was losing weight. I wanted to show I could still put it to ‘em.”

Ponder also tackled his coverage duties well, helping to preserve the secondary’s streak of not giving up a passing touchdown.

“I’m real proud of that,” Ponder said. “I’m proud of the whole Boom Squad.”

The secondary has dubbed itself the Boom Squad because of its hard hits.

GETTING THE BIG PICTURE

Corey Tucker, Moorpark’s quarterback, learned plenty by watching films before the Raiders’ 21-0 victory over Santa Monica. His lessons helped the Raider passing attack put up impressive numbers.

Tucker, a sophomore, completed nine of 17 for 187 yards. Six of his completions were to flanker Tim Blakeley--all in the first half and on the same pattern.

“When we had doubles (two receivers on the same side), the (defensive back) to the inside would play off 11 yards. (Blakeley) was running eight-yard outs,” Tucker said.

In the second half, Tucker and receivers hooked up on longer routes. He completed only three passes, but they went for 103 yards. The longest was a 51-yard touchdown to Alex Estrada.

“That one corner (former Granada Hills standout Derrick Stewart), he’s real good,” Tucker said. ‘But on the films, the other corner (Charles Towns), the one we were working, got beat deep.”

REST FOR THE WEARY

Credit the Moorpark offense with an assist in the defense’s shutout of Santa Monica. Moorpark ran 61 plays, gaining 324 yards, compared to Santa Monica’s 40 for 128 yards.

“If we give our defense a little time, give them time to rest, no one can drive the ball on them,” Tucker said.

RUN FOR RESPECT

Of the five football players who transferred to Valley during the past year, Howard Blackwell was not the most heralded. He has, however, been the most productive.

In two games, Blackwell, an Oregon transfer from Hart High, has 298 rushing yards and seven receptions for an additional 56 yards. He has scored four touchdowns.

Blackwell is second--two yards behind Ira Moreland of Harbor--among Western State Conference rushers. He is averaging 8.1 yards a carry compared to Moreland’s 6.8.

“He does everything you want,” Valley Coach Jim Fenwick said. “He breaks tackles, he understands the offense, he plays hard. He sets the tone for others around him.”

HOME-GROWN TALENT

In a day and age when more and more of California’s community colleges have become a springboard for foreign athletes on their way to scholarships at NCAA or NAIA schools, Ventura cross-country Coach Tuck Mason is quick to point out his men’s team is composed entirely of runners from Ventura County. That team on Friday won the first of three Western State Conference meets to be run this season.

Jorge Barajas, who won the WSC meet, hails from Fillmore High, and Roman Morales and Scott Fickerson, who finished second and fifth, are graduates of Ventura High.

David Guenther and Chris Jimenez, Ventura’s Nos. 4 and 5 runners, are from Buena High, and Ryan Ferguson, John Parks and Manuel Lopez, the Pirates’ sixth through eighth runners, are graduates of Oxnard, Camarillo and Moorpark highs, respectively.

“It’s very important to me that our runners are all local kids,” Mason said. “I’ve always been against foreign athletes competing at the community college level. I just don’t think it’s fair for coaches to bring in the cream of the crop from other countries to run against kids from the local communities.”

Riverside College is a prime example of kind of team Mason opposes.

The Tigers won the state junior college cross-country and track championships during the 1991-92 school year with teams powered by athletes from Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

In 1988, Kenyan Julius Kariuki won the 10,000 for Riverside in the state track championships, then won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in that summer’s Olympic Games in Seoul.

Algerian Noureddine Morceli won the 1,500 and the 5,000 for Riverside in both the 1989 and ’90 state meet.

In 1991, he won the 1,500 in the World championships in Tokyo, and he set a world record of 3 minutes 28.86 seconds in the event in Rieti, Italy, last month.

“It’s just not fair for world-class athletes to run against local kids,” Mason said. “It’s that simple.”

PLAYOFF WATCH

As the Northridge women’s volleyball team nears the midway point of its season, the Matadors must close with a rush if they hope to qualify for the NCAA Division I playoffs.

Northridge is 10-6 after finishing third in the four-team University of San Diego tournament Saturday. Coach Walt Ker said at the beginning of the season that the Matadors likely would need a record of 29-5 or 28-6 to qualify for the playoffs.

Fortunately for the Matadors, their second-half schedule seems easier.

“I told the team that if we could get through the first month of the season with a pretty good record, things should get easier,” Ker said.

The Matadors’ remaining schedule includes New Mexico, ranked eighth; Arizona; Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (twice) and San Diego.

Arizona swept the Matadors in three games last season, and San Luis Obispo and San Diego already have beaten them this season.

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