Master’s Opens Men’s Soccer Season With 1-0 Win Over Fresno Pacific

Stephen Janho scored on a penalty kick in the 62nd minute to give The Master’s College a 1-0 victory over Fresno Pacific in a nonconference men’s soccer match Tuesday afternoon at The Master’s in Newhall.

Kris Bage made nine saves to preserve the shutout in the opener for both teams.

Football

Sylmar High running back Durell Price is the only player in the region listed among the nation’s Top 100 prospects by Scholastic Coach magazine.

Price, a 6-feet-1, 220-pound senior and 1994 City Section player of the year, is one of nine players listed from California.

Coach Bill Conner of St. Genevieve High returned to the practice field Tuesday after a one-week absence to deal with personal problems.

Conner wouldn’t elaborate on his problems, but he did say they involved moving his family from Delaware to Southern California.

“I had some things to work through,” he said.

St. Genevieve Athletic Director John Yakel said that Conner needed some time off to deal with stress.

“He didn’t feel like he was taking care of business with football or with his personal life,” Yakel said. “The stress was affecting his health.”

Baseball

Pitcher Daniel Martinez, the closer for the Camarillo American Legion team that advanced to the State final this summer, has accepted a scholarship to Cal State Los Angeles.

Martinez, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound right-hander who pitched at Rio Mesa High, follows in the footsteps of Steve and Dave Soliz, brothers from Rio Mesa who played at Cal State L.A. in the early 1990s. Dave Soliz, career leader in saves for Cal State L.A., also was the Camarillo’s Legion coach this season.

Martinez was 4-2 with a 2.73 earned-run average for Rio Mesa. In Legion play, he had five saves and a 1.40 ERA.

Steve Arneson, catcher at Rio Mesa the past three seasons, will attempt to make the Oklahoma State team as a walk-on.

Arneson (6-1, 205) also caught for the Camarillo legion team, batting .398.

“Walking on at a school of [Oklahoma State’s] caliber is tough, but Steve plays a position where they’ll take a second look at a kid,” Rio Mesa Coach Rich Duran said.

Western Athletic Conference presidents asked athletic directors on Tuesday for more information on a plan that might eliminate Cal State Northridge from the conference’s baseball alignment in 1997.

The athletic directors earlier this month supported a proposal that would eliminate part-time WAC members from the conference for baseball, making room for the full-time members joining the conference next year.

Northridge, Cal State Sacramento and Grand Canyon are the three affiliate members that are not full-time.

Northridge has applied for membership to the Big Sky Conference, which does not have a baseball league.

Tennis

Travis Rettenmaier of Camarillo has been offered a full scholarship to attend the Nick Bolletieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Fla. Rettenmaier is one of the nation’s top 12-and-under players and won the 1995 Ojai Valley Championships.

Rettenmaier, 12, said he will leave Thursday to attend the academy for at least two weeks before making a decision about whether to stay.

“Right now, I really don’t know,” said Rettenmaier of the academy that produced Andre Agassi, Monica Seles and Jim Courier.

Softball

Ray Blum resigned after one season as coach at Grant High to become athletic director at University. The Lancers were 5-13, 2-8 in Valley Pac-8 Conference play.

Volleyball

The Master’s College women’s team will open the season tonight at 7:30 p.m. with an exhibition match against the Latvian club team, Kimikis.

Kimikis, which has won two of the last three Latvian Cup titles, also will play matches against UC Santa Barbara, Pepperdine, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Bakersfield and Cal State Los Angeles during a two-week tour of Southern California.

Ice Hockey

Angela Ruggiero of Simi Valley is the youngest player to make the U.S. Women’s National hockey team.

Ruggiero, 15, made the cut at a camp in Lake Placid earlier this month. She was among six defensive players chosen from a field of 12.

For the next 10 days, Ruggiero is competing with the National team in Finland.

Contributing: Jeff Fletcher, Irene Garcia, Dana Haddad, Steve Henson, Michael Lazarus, Paige A. Leech, John Ortega, Peter Yoon.