With Fitzgerald, Valley Is Armed and Dangerous

It hasn’t taken long for Valley quarterback Sean Fitzgerald to receive rave reviews after leading the Monarchs to victories in their first two games.

“I think he should have been a Division I quarterback at a better school than Idaho State right out of high school,” Glendale College Coach John Cicuto said after watching Fitzgerald pass for 244 yards and two touchdowns in a 23-16 victory over the Vaqueros on Thursday night. “He has to be the premier (junior college) quarterback in the state this year.”

Fitzgerald, 6 feet 5, 211 pounds, played safety at Idaho State last season after a stellar career at Agoura High. He transferred to Valley this season.

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Brent Carder, in his 24th season at Antelope Valley, is part of an elite group.

Carder, whose team is 1-1, has a 136-97-5 record. The victory total ties him with David Bolstorff of Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa, for fifth place among active junior college football coaches.

Carder said he wasn’t aware of where he stood until Glenn Haller, the school’s sports information director, researched the matter. “It is the least of my concerns,” Carder said. “I guess I can’t help think about it, though, because I hear about it everywhere I turn.”

The winningest active coach, according to the J.C. Grid-Wire, is Ken Swearingen of Saddleback with a 242-69-6 record.

CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE

Myles Visiting Sick Father

Defensive captain Victor Myles is under strain this week, missing classes and practices to be with his father, who is cancer-stricken and hospitalized in Long Beach.

“It’s pretty rough,” Myles said. “He’s under a lot of medication. When I talk to him, he goes in and out. He can hear, but it’s hard for him to respond. I gave him a football picture of me, he didn’t say much. He saw a football game on TV and he thought it was me, but we weren’t on TV.”

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The key for Trevor Watters is relaxation, a state he never thought he would experience a few weeks ago when he lined up for long-snapping duties against San Diego State.

“I didn’t want to mess up in front of 41,000 people,” Watters said. “A bunch of my friends were there. If I messed up, I would never hear the end of it.”

At seven yards, the field-goal snapping was a snap for the 307-pounder, but the 15-yard snaps to punter Albert Razo were unsettling.

“I’ve only been snapping punts for a year and I can’t look back,” Watters said.

Watters can’t look at Razo because when he learned to long snap at Cerritos College, he was responsible for blocking. Now that he does not have to block and wants to look back, he can’t because his form is too ingrained.

Against Northern Arizona, Watters’ snaps not only were accurate, he made two solo tackles on punt coverage.

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As defensive signal caller, inside linebacker O.J. Ojomoh looks to defensive coordinator Mark Banker for the alignment before every play. Against Northern Arizona, Banker was communicating much more than the formation.

“He was going crazy on the sidelines,” Ojomoh said. “He had this look in his eyes that really psyched me up. I would call the play and the whole defense would respond with fire; you could feel the energy.”

Ojomoh transferred that energy into 14 tackles, nine solo, and four sacks. His performance and his frenzied sack celebrations helped the defense hold the Lumberjacks to 191 yards and one touchdown. “Something took over my body,” Ojomoh said. “And the defensive line really helped.”

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It might not have been evident in the score, but Coach Don Strametz believes the women’s cross-country team finally turned the corner in last Saturday’s Aztec Invitational at Balboa Park in San Diego.

The Matadors’ 309-point total left them in 11th place in the race, which was won by top-ranked Arkansas with 26 points, but Strametz was beaming afterward.

“I was smiling for the first time in a long time after a cross-country meet,” Strametz said. “The women ran in that race with a different attitude than they’ve had before. They displayed a competitiveness as a group that I haven’t seen since we made the move to Division I.”

Although the Northridge women placed fifth or better in the NCAA Division II championships seven times during Strametz’ first 10 years, they have struggled since moving to Division I in 1990, placing 10th, 15th and 12th in the Region 8 the past three years.

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Jeff Garcia, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard, has transferred to Northridge from Morningside (Iowa) College. Ozan Korkut, a guard from Turkey, has been impressive in pick-up basketball games, according to Northridge players.

Around the Campuses. . .

* Glendale’s Pathon Rucker, bidding for a second consecutive 1,000-yard season, rushed for 186 yards in a 23-16 loss to Valley on Thursday. Rucker has 237 yards in two games for a 118.5 average. He rushed for 1,216 yards last season.

* CSUN’s Ivy Calvin is ranked fourth nationally in kickoff returns at 32.5 yards per return.

* CSUN’s Albert Razo is 12th nationally in punting at 42.33.

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