CSUN Serves Up Blue-Plate Special : College football: Matadors dish out scoring opportunities with kicking game and lose, 28-23.

There’s offense, there’s defense, and there’s that other in-between thing.

Special teams are supposed to be the transition for a simple change of possession. For Cal State Northridge on Saturday night, it was an undeniable bridge to defeat.

Northridge blunders on special teams led to a pair of scores and Southwest Texas State held on to beat the Matadors, 28-23, in a nonconference game before 8,916 at Bobcat Stadium.

While Northridge’s special teams blocked a punt that led to a touchdown, they also snapped two balls over the punter’s head, allowed a field-goal attempt to be blocked and had a punt bounce off the backside of a return-team blocker.

“What I’m thinking is that the best team didn’t win the football game,” CSUN Coach Bob Burt said. “You can’t keep putting your defense in a world of hurt like that.”

Painful as it was in the overall sense, the ending was worse. Despite its largess on special teams, Northridge (1-2) had a shot at victory in the final moments.

With 1 minute 26 seconds remaining, the Matadors took over at their 20-yard line. Quarterback J.J. O’Laughlin, who passed for a career-high 358 yards, took the helm and was poised to ruin things for the home folks.

“I felt great,” said O’Laughlin, who completed 25 of 46 passes and tossed two touchdowns. “It didn’t work out. . . . I’m speechless.”

On the first play of the final possession, O’Laughlin connected with David Romines for a 20-yard gain to the 40. After an incomplete pass, O’Laughlin’s pass to receiver Duc Ngo was intercepted by linebacker Joe O’Haver.

It was the only interception thrown by O’Laughlin.

Southwest Texas (2-2) held a 22-17 lead when the game started to slip through the Matadors’ fingers. More specifically, through the fingers of punter Darren McMahon.

On the second play of the fourth quarter, Northridge was stalled at its 39-yard line when long-snapper Andrew Rose hiked the ball over the head and off the fingertips of McMahon, who was mauled at the nine.

Three plays later, tailback Claude Mathis scored from two yards for a 28-17 lead. Earlier, a bad snap by Rose led to a Southwest Texas field goal in the final minute of the first half.

“You can’t ask your defense to play inside its 10-yard line over and over,” Burt said.

Burt may want to stop asking O’Laughlin to carry the team with his arm, too. The ground game, sputtering all season, was again mired in the muck. Factor in the 63 yards thrown away by the bad snaps on punts and Northridge finished with minus-31 yards rushing.

The Northridge defense played creditably, allowing 319 yards, and twice stopped Southwest Texas in the fourth quarter to give the offense a chance to pull out the victory. No such luck.

Running back Donald Wilkerson, built like a pit bull at 5-foot-7 and 190 pounds, was the big dog in the Southwest Texas offense.

“He ran like Marshall Faulk,” said Northridge lineman Oscar Wilson. “He uses his blockers real well. He uses everybody. He uses defensive players (for interference) if you’re not looking.”

Wilkerson rushed for 187 yards and a touchdown in 36 carries. Mathis chipped in 55 and two touchdowns.

Northridge moved to within 28-23 with 9:43 left in the game on a six-yard run by tailback Mark Harper--who was held to 33 yards in 11 carries--but couldn’t cash in on its final two possessions.

Southwest Texas moved in front for good on its first possession of the second half when Wilkerson banged in from 11 yards on a draw play for a 22-17 lead.

If only the second half had gone as well as the first portion of the second quarter, during which the Matadors scored 17 points.

With Southwest Texas holding a 13-10 lead, freshman DeWayne Johnson bolted through the middle of the line and blocked a punt by Jeff Brandes at the Bobcat 27.

It wasn’t much of a night for Rose. A holding penalty nullified his 20-yard return of the block for a touchdown, but this time it didn’t matter much. O’Laughlin threw a 25-yard strike to Romines (seven catches for 143 yards) on the next play to give Northridge a 17-13 lead with 3:20 left in the half.

Northridge had a shot at inflicting serious pain on the Bobcats in the closing moments of the half, but shifted into reverse.

With 1:38 left, Northridge took over at its 45-yard line, having scored on its previous three possessions. Things were heading in the right direction, but not for long.

Three plays went nowhere and on fourth down, Rose hiked the ball well over the head of McMahon, who after a 33-yard loss was tackled by half the folks in the stadium at the 17-yard line.

Ray Whitehead kicked a 27-yard field goal with 10 seconds left to pare the Northridge lead to 17-16.