Glendale Buoyed by Casey’s Return

This hasn’t turned out to be the kind of football season Jerome Casey pictured.

Casey, an All-City back at Sylmar High, had expected to team with Pathon Rucker to give Glendale College a powerful running attack.

But an ankle injury suffered early in the season reduced Casey’s role in the offense.

“I thought, ‘Boy, this is going to be a great duo right here,’ ” Glendale College Coach John Cicuto said. “We were really excited but the injury factor came in and it hasn’t worked out like we hoped.”

Without Casey, the Vaquero running game has depended almost exclusively on Rucker. The former Glendale High standout leads the state in rushing with 1,407 yards in 215 carries and has scored 12 touchdowns. He is one of the key reasons Glendale (4-3-1, 3-3-1 in Western State Conference play) is 3-0 in the Northern Division.

Casey, who played two seasons ago at Western New Mexico and attended Glendale last year but did not play football, has 355 yards in 69 carries and seven touchdowns. He ran for 74 yards and one touchdown in a 21-20 victory over Compton last week, and Cicuto said Casey is near full strength again.

CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE

New Team on the Scene

Though the Matadors did not earn a berth in the NCAA soccer playoffs, their showing this season definitely paved the way for the future, UCLA Coach Sigi Schmid said.

“It will give the (NCAA selection) committee some recognition of them--’Oh, yeah, Northridge’--so they’re not all of a sudden a new face,” he said. “The committee almost expects you to do it for a couple of years, and then they’ll let you in.”

Schmid recalled similar circumstances early in his coaching career. In the 1982 season, UCLA finished 16-4 but did not gain a playoff berth.

But the Bruins finished 17-2-3 the next season, earned a playoff berth and now have been invited to the tournament for 11 consecutive years.

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The Northridge football team defeated San Luis Obispo, 22-14, but the offense continued its routine of struggling in the second half.

In its last five games, Northridge has scored only 44 points in the second half and nine in the fourth quarter.

“We need to get our offense going in the fourth quarter a little better,” quarterbacks coach Dale Bunn said. “We don’t have that killer instinct. We choke ‘em, but we don’t take all the air out of ‘em.”

Around the Campuses. . .

* Anita Villagran of the Antelope Valley women’s volleyball team leads the Foothill Conference in kill percentage at 54.5%. Teammate Shelly Dawson is third at 47.3%.

* Cal Lutheran sophomore forward Per Roald was named Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men’s soccer player of the year. Nine Kingsmen received All-SCIAC recognition, including six on the first team: Roald, Aaron Muth, Willie Ruiz, Tim Ward, Dal Nguyen and Dave Eshelman.

* Cal Lutheran junior Pete Marine leads the SCIAC in receiving (41 catches) and all-purpose-yardage average (169.3 yards per game). He is averaging 10.0 yards on 25 punt returns and 25.3 yards on 17 kickoff returns.

Kennedy Cosgrove, Jon Weisman and staff writers Fernando Dominguez, Mike Hiserman and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.