Ass’ad Lands a Keeper for CSUN Soccer Team

Cal State Northridge has landed its top men’s soccer recruit, Coach Marwan Ass’ad said.

Zoltan Nagy, a senior goalkeeper at Damien High in La Verne, signed a letter of intent Friday and could make an immediate impact on the Northridge program, which last fall had its first losing season in Ass’ad’s 12 years as coach.

“He’s a starter,” said Ass’ad, who has seen Nagy play for club teams. “He’s awesome. I was amazed he was still available.”

Ass’ad said Northridge wouldn’t have had enough scholarship money to land Nagy (6 feet, 180 pounds) if students hadn’t passed a fee referendum to fund athletics.

“It worked out great with the increase, and now we have a great goalie for the next four years,” Ass’ad said.

Auto Racing

Ron Hornaday Jr. of Palmdale won the Budweiser 200 NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour race Saturday at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma.

Hornaday, who started from the pole in a Chevrolet Lumina, beat Ken Pedersen of Kentfield in a Lumina by five seconds in the 50-lap race on the 2.52-mile Sonoma road course.

“I love this track,” said Hornaday, a former champion at Saugus Speedway. “Sears Point has been fantastic to me. Nobody can say they gave me this race. You have to win this race. It’s got lefts and rights and ups and downs.”

It was Hornaday’s second victory in three starts on the Featherlite Southwest Tour this season. It also was Hornaday’s 18th career victory on the tour, which puts him within one of Mike Chase’s record for the series.

Hornaday averaged 68.487 m.p.h. and led all but four of the 50 laps in winning $8,075.

Hornaday also is having success in another series. He has won two races and is leading the points standings in NASCAR’s SuperTrucks Series, 20 better than Butch Miller.

Dennis Dyer of Palmdale was fourth, M.K. Kanke of Granada Hills finished 11th, Frank Maronski Jr. of Quartz Hill ran 12th and Bob Lyon of Agua Dulce came in 22nd, all driving Oldsmobile Cutlasses.

Charlie Saied of North Hollywood finished 25th in a Lumina, Doug Renno of Canoga Park was 27th in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Keith Spangler of Chatsworth was 30th in a Chevrolet Lumina.

Lance Hooper of Palmdale was knocked out of the race when he crashed on the first lap.

Cycling

John Wordin of West Hills won the California Time Trial Championship at Edwards Air Force Base.

Wordin, 32, finished in 52 minutes 40 seconds to beat a field of 150 riders. Wordin, who rides for the Valley-based Nutra-Fig Racing Team and is ranked 15th in the national points standings, won the event for the third time.

Bowling

Robert Smith of Moorpark lost to Mark Williams of Beaumont, Tex., 627-562, Friday night in match-play qualifying at the $250,000 American Bowling Congress Bud Light Masters at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno.

Smith, the 1993 U.S. amateur champion, missed qualifying for Saturday’s stepladder finals.

Williams lost in the final to Mike Aulby of Indianapolis, 200-187.

Track and Field

Keith O’Doherty of Thousand Oaks High, the sixth-place finisher in the 1994 State Division I cross-country championships, has made an oral commitment to Arkansas.

O’Doherty, the No. 2 runner on a Lancer team that was ranked second in the country last year, took recruiting trips to Arkansas, Villanova, UCLA, Baylor and Princeton before choosing to run for a program that has won seven of the last 11 NCAA Division I titles.

The fact that Razorback Coach John McDonnell is a native of Ireland, like O’Doherty, also influenced his decision.

“They’ve got a great tradition and it’s nice to have that Irish feel there,” O’Doherty said. “I wouldn’t say that (McDonnell being Irish) played a huge part in my decision, but it was definitely a factor.”

O’Doherty, who has personal bests of 4 minutes 23.5 seconds in the 1,600 meters and 9:10.91 in the 3,200, is the third Thousand Oaks runner to announce his college decision within the last week.

Jeff Fischer, third in the 1993 and ’94 State Division I cross-country championships, will attend Stanford. Kevin Marsden, ninth in the 1994 meet, has accepted an appointment to the Air Force Academy.

* Contributing: Steve Elling, Dana Haddad, John Ortega.