Sports

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES

Beverly Hills High quarterback Chris Wallace plays football like a chess match, waiting for an opponent to make a move before he makes his.

Changing plays at the line of scrimmage, Wallace directed Beverly Hills to an easy 35-12 win over Redondo in an Ocean League game at Beverly Hills.

Wallace passed for 206 yards and three touchdowns. Aaron Kogan had 121 yards and a touchdown as the Normans had 400 yards in total offense.

The Normans, winners of five of their last six games, improved to 5-3 and 4-1 in league play. They trail Culver City by a game and will play the Centaurs in the season finale Nov. 11.

“Chris Wallace was the key to the game,” Beverly Hills Coach Carter Paysinger said. “He made the right calls at the line and took us in and out of plays.”

Mike Hakim also had an exceptional day, catching nine passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns.

The Normans play El Segundo in their homecoming game at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

NEW SIGNALS

After losing third-string quarterback Kerry McGonigal to an injury, Cal turned to former Beverly Hills standout Ziv Gottlieb during the second half of its game against Washington State.

Gottlieb, who saw some action at quarterback last season against USC, was switched to receiver during the preseason.

Wearing No. 81, Gottlieb guided the Bears to a field goal. Gottlieb completed five of 11 passes for 61 yards and ran six times for 17 yards.

The Bears lost, 26-23.

“We were real excited about what he did considering he hasn’t taken any snaps in practice,” Paysinger said. “He came in and ran their offense like he had been practicing all season.”

McGonigal suffered a separated left shoulder early in the third quarter. First-stringer Dave Barr is sidelined for the season after breaking his collarbone and Pat Barnes sat out because of a bruised nerve in his shoulder.

JUST KICK IT

University High faced a do-or-die situation trailing Los Angeles, 16-15, during the final two minutes of the game.

Facing fourth down and five, University Coach Marshall Jones wanted to call another pass play. Jones’ assistant, Terry Louis, wanted the team to kick a field goal.

The problem was that Carlos Campos, the team’s kicker and starting quarterback, had never made a field goal.

Jones decided to take a chance and Campos responded by making a 22-yard field goal with 1:20 left. University won, 18-16.

“Campos has a good leg and is pretty accurate,” Jones said. “But he’s not in the class of (Venice kicker) Mike Barry.

“Terry said to go for the field goal and it seemed like the right thing to do.”

The Warriors (4-1 in Coastal Conference play) play at Hamilton (1-4) Friday and at Fairfax (0-5) Nov. 10. Last season, the Warriors lost to Hamilton and had to rally to beat Fairfax after trailing, 21-7, at halftime.

“We’re not taking anything for granted,” Jones said. “We’re thinking about Hamilton and Hamilton only.”

SECRET WEAPON

St. Monica Coach Norm Lacy has kept quiet about Jason Jones’ potential as a running back, but he let his secret out Thursday against Verbum Dei at Compton College.

Mariners starting tailback Phil Austin injured his right leg during a two-point conversion and had to be carried off the field in the third quarter. Austin’s injury was later diagnosed as a sprained medial collateral ligament in his knee.

With Austin sidelined, Jones took over as the team’s tailback.

After Verbum Dei closed to within 28-16, Jones took control.

The Mariners drove 47 yards for a touchdown on three runs by Jones to take a 34-16 lead with 4:35 left. They won, 34-22.

“He was awesome,” Verbum Dei Coach Lalo Mendoza said. “We had six guys who didn’t want any part of him. They were slipping and falling down. No one wanted to tackle him.

“We’ll see him play Division I ball.”

Lacy acknowledges that he wanted to play Jones at tailback since the beginning of the season, but didn’t want to risk injury to Jones. Now that playoff time is two weeks away, Lacy plans to use Jones more often.

“Jason runs like this all the time during practice,” Lacy said. “We haven’t exposed him because we didn’t want to lose him during a meaningless game.”

Lacy said if Jones were to get injured, “we wouldn’t have a receiver of his caliber in the offense and teams would start double-teaming Dwight Carter.”

Carter had an exception game, catching touchdown passes of 42, 49 and 40 yards from quarterback Steve Pulley.

STREAKING

Murphy won its fifth consecutive game with a 41-0 defeat of Bell-Jeff on Saturday.

Quarterback Danny Ragsdale passed for 151 yards and four touchdowns. Strong safety Damion Rucker returned two fumbles for touchdowns.

“We finally put a complete game together,” Murphy Coach Greg Dixon said. “The kids realize it’s crunch time, league title time and the playoffs are coming. It’s time to put things together.”

Nobles, who are 5-3 and 5-0 in league, are in first place and can clinch at least a tie for the Santa Fe League championship with a win against Pius X on Saturday at St. Bernard.

Murphy has won the league title two of the last three years.

WINGING IT

The intensity level figures to be turned up Friday night when Serra visits St. Bernard in a game with playoff implications. Adding to the highly charged atmosphere will be the season’s most intriguing coaching matchup.

St. Bernard’s offensive coordinator is Kevin Crawley, who was dismissed as Serra’s coach midway through last season. Crawley was added to the staff after the Vikings lost their opener against Culver City, 26-12. He is using the same offense, the run-oriented wing-T, that he did at Serra.

“After the Culver City game, I knew we needed help with the offense and more help with the line,” said St. Bernard co-coach Bob Yarnall, who took over the team with Tom Burgess after Mike Noonan resigned as coach shortly before the season. “Lo and behold, (Crawley) showed up. He said he saw the Culver City game and would be glad to help out in any way, even if it was carrying water. I talked with him and was very impressed.”

Yarnall made several inquiries and came to the conclusion that Crawley’s dismissal at Serra was caused by parental pressure. Crawley came under fire at Serra for allegedly being verbally abusive to his players.

Yarnall said Crawley has exhibited no such behavior at St. Bernard.

RECRUITING

Fairfax point guard Duane Davis decided to accept a basketball scholarship from Arizona State and will sign Wednesday during the November early signing period.

Davis, a 5-foot-11 point guard, averaged 15.5 points and 4.5 assists for the Lions last season. He had narrowed his choices to UC Santa Clara, Oregon State and San Francisco.

The Lions have had at least one player sign with a Division I school during the last 12 seasons under Coach Harvey Kitani.

Westchester guard Ben Sanders said Tuesday that he is deciding between Nevada Las Vegas, Washington State, Georgia and Cal State Long Beach.

Sanders, a 6-4 shooting guard, averaged 16.5 points and 4.0 rebounds last season.

“I just can’t make up my mind,” Sanders said. “I’ll probably sign late.”

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

National player of the year candidate Annett Buckner and Jenny Johnson will be the featured players when UCLA plays host to top-ranked Stanford at 7 p.m. Friday.

Buckner had 25 kills as the Bruins defeated host Washington State, 15-9, 7-15, 15-8, 15-12, on Friday. On Saturday, the Bruins lost to Washington, 13-15, 15-3, 15-11, 12-15, 13-15. Johnson had a team-high 20 kills in the match.

The Bruins, the defending Pacific 10 champions, trail Stanford by two games with six games remaining.

MISCELLANY

The UCLA men’s and women’s basketball teams will host an open house at 1 p.m. Sunday at Pauley Pavilion. Featured events include slam-dunk and shooting contests. Admission is free. . . . Sports R Us invites adult volleyball players to participate in its six-man and two-man games from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. each Tuesday at Marina del Rey Middle School Gym, 12500 Braddock Drive, Mar Vista.

A fee to offset gym rental will be charged. Information: David McKee 310-547-5916.