COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : Loss to Valley Gave Glendale a Wake-Up Call

Glendale College has won four football games in a row, and Coach John Cicuto senses a championship feeling.

“This team is a little bit special,” Cicuto said. “They’ve had a real good work ethic ever since December when they weren’t very happy with the way the season worked out.”

Glendale was 4-6 in 1991, only the Vaqueros’ second losing season in the 17 years Cicuto has been at the school (13 as an assistant, four as head coach).

“They knew one of the main reasons was that there was no sophomore leadership,” Cicuto said. “We were not even close to being a team. Ever. These guys are doing the same things our other championship teams did as far as rallying around each other.”

Cicuto said Glendale’s 28-21 loss to Valley in its second game was a blessing in disguise.

“That was probably the best thing that could happen to us,” he said. “We opened up with a big, easy win (31-0) against Citrus, then we had a week off and I’m sure these guys were thinking they were pretty good.

“Valley came in ready to play us and we were down, 21-7, in the first half. That woke us up. We became a team in the second half and ever since then, we’ve maintained the same attitude.”

Glendale (5-1, 4-1 in conference play) roared back against Valley, but missed a chip-shot field goal and almost scored a touchdown on the final play. “I think by beating us, Valley did us a favor,” Cicuto said.

TOUGH NEIGHBORHOODS

If Valley (3-2-1, 3-2) harbors any hope of winning the Southern Division of the Western State Conference, the Monarchs need a win at Bakersfield on Saturday.

That’s a tall order.

Valley Coach Jim Fenwick considers Bakersfield the toughest place in the WSC for a visiting team to win.

Bakersfield (4-1-1, 3-1-1) is extra tough, Fenwick said, because of its expansive stadium and relatively raucous crowd.

“That’s a first-class operation. They have that big (capacity 19,598) stadium and they’ve had some success so they have a great following,” Fenwick said.

“There’s some money up there, and it shows. Some of our kids might get caught up in that. They might be a little in awe. There’s a uniqueness. It’s big-time junior college football up there.”

MAULDIN THE MAGICIAN

Joe Mauldin, Valley’s athletically gifted sophomore quarterback, seems to be hitting his stride.

In a 44-41 loss to Santa Monica on Saturday, Mauldin accounted for 385 yards and four touchdowns. He completed 10 of 22 passes for 166 yards and two touchdowns and rushed 13 times for 219 yards and two more scores.

Fenwick said he can’t remember the last time he witnessed a quarterback rush for more than 200 yards. “And he’s not even an option quarterback,” Fenwick added.

Mauldin hurt Santa Monica several times on quarterback draws, but it is his ability to scramble that makes him perhaps the WSC’s most dangerous big-play threat.

Mauldin leads the WSC in total offense with 1,417 yards--387 more than his closest competitor. He has 350 rushing yards, ranking him tied for 11th in the conference.

ROLLER COASTER

In a 53-hour period last week, the emotions of the Cal State Northridge football team ran the gamut. On Thursday, Coach Bob Burt cut a listless practice short and called a meeting in which, in a tone of disgust, he told his players he was tired of begging them to care. At practice the following day, Burt’s chagrined players were amazingly enthusiastic despite heavy and persistent rain showers.

In the first half of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo game Saturday, however, they worked themselves out of Burt’s good graces.

Several players credited Burt’s ballistic halftime speech--during which he kicked two trash cans--with motivating them to rebound from a 13-0 deficit to a 14-13 win.

“He kicked the trash cans straighter than (Joe) Jezulin’s (game-winning) kick,” strong safety Eric Treibatch said.

NO DOUBTERS

Although Northridge had to drive 80 yards in the final two minutes of its win over San Luis Obispo, quarterback Marty Fisher said the offensive unit was confident during its infrequent huddles.

“I don’t think the guys had any doubts that we’d move downfield,” he said. “We had done it all night.”

When Fisher completed four consecutive passes early in the drive, his confidence grew even more.

“I felt that I could sit back, see who is open, and pick (defenders) apart,” Fisher said. “I could drop back and know that the line is gonna give me time and the receivers are gonna catch the ball.”

The winning touchdown came on a five-yard pass to Chris Fregeau with 14 seconds to play.

BROTHERLY LOVE

Fortunately for Northridge defensive tackle Mike Zorn, the Schnug family does not have an offensive lineman on the San Luis Obispo team.

Idaho tackle Jody Schnug incurred Zorn’s wrath to the point where Zorn was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct and benched by Burt.

Two weeks later, Schnug’s brother, Matt, who plays center for Santa Clara, grabbed Zorn’s throat. Enraged, Zorn retaliated and was again whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct. “They talked on the phone and Jody told Matt that I could be coerced into a 15-yard penalty,” Zorn said. “I’m a sucker.”

Zorn’s father, an LAPD detective, advised his son he would spend more time on the field if he controlled his anger.

The result?

A season-high 11 tackles against San Luis Obispo, including eight solo and two for losses totaling eight yards.

BREAD AND BUTTER

Northridge’s success with the quarterback sneak on third and one--the Matadors are five for five--has prompted wide receiver Duc Ngo to give it a nickname.

When Ngo brought the play in from the sideline during the Matadors’ 80-yard winning drive against San Luis Obispo, he took the edge off the situation by smiling at Fisher and saying, “Bread and butter.”

MS. AMERICA

Glendale sophomore cross-country runner America Rivas is improving as the season rolls on.

Rivas was a well-beaten third in the first Western State Conference meet at Cuesta College last month, but she won the second WSC meet at College of the Canyons last week by 70 seconds.

Before that, Rivas won the Irvine invitational on Oct. 9 and placed ninth in the Mt. San Antonio College invitational on Oct. 16 with a personal best of 18:58 over the three-mile course.

“I felt really good,” said Rivas after winning the WSC meet. “I just seem to be getting stronger and stronger.”

Rivas’ strength was obvious when she took the lead from Amy Hamilton of Cuesta at the mile mark of the WSC meet and was not seriously challenged thereafter.

THE UNDERSTUDY

When Cal Lutheran tailback Cassidy O’Sullivan, the Kingsmen’s No. 4 all-time leading rusher, sat out Saturday’s game against Menlo College with two sprained knees, it was not the first time backup tailback Steve Roussell had replaced him.

Both players played at Big Bear High, and when O’Sullivan was the senior starter on the varsity team, Roussell occupied the same position on the junior varsity squad.

As a senior, O’Sullivan was Big Bear’s player of the year. The following year, Roussell was Big Bear’s player of the year.

“He’s been sort of an inspiration to me,” Roussell said.

Credit O’Sullivan with 20-20 foresight. When Roussell was a senior at Big Bear, O’Sullivan telephoned him and clued him in on Cal Lutheran football. “That was it,” Roussell said. He was a Kingsman the next year.

Roussell rushed for 73 yards in 17 carries and scored two touchdowns in a 19-7 win over Menlo.

PLAYOFF SHOT

The Cal Lutheran men’s soccer team occupies a straightforward position: Win Saturday’s Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship game at Claremont, go to the NCAA Division III playoffs. Lose and stay home.

The Kingsmen, 10-0 in conference play, defeated Claremont, 1-0, in the teams’ first meeting.

The winner-take-all format on Saturday has Cal Lutheran Coach George Kuntz excited.

“We love games like this,” he said. “This is what we train and prepare for. These are the type of games you want to play in.”

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