LIGHT TRICKS: If you were startled by...

LIGHT TRICKS: If you were startled by those exploding skulls in the movie “Mortal Kombat,” blame Available Light, a Burbank-based special effects company. (D1) . . . But even though the small outfit is basking in the glory of working on a hit movie, its co-owner, John Van Vliet, above, knows all too well the perils of a business where the overhead is huge and the profits slim.

FUMBLE: Let’s look on the bright side of Cal State Northridge’s 68-7 drubbing at the hands of Northern Arizona over the weekend--it wasn’t the biggest loss in CSUN football history. That loss, 77-17, occurred in 1973 against the same team. CSUN’s greatest margin of victory was 52-0 against U.S. International in 1977. Unfortunately, USIU is now defunct.

COMEUPPANCE: While CSUN Coach Dave Baldwin was enduring a miserable night, Valley College Coach Jim Fenwick was enjoying one of his greatest. His Monarchs upset Bakersfield College, 33-30, even though Bakersfield was ranked first among junior colleges in the state. Fenwick was a finalist for the Northridge job that went to Baldwin.

OFF THE FIELD: The situation of former CSUN football player Jonathan Beauregard is far more serious than any game. Testimony in his attempted murder trial is scheduled to begin today. Beauregard, 23, allegedly shot his former girlfriend and the man she was sitting with outside a San Bernardino bar.

SURVIVOR: Eddie Nash was acquitted in 1991 on murder charges. Prosecutors, who believed he literally got away with murder, were elated this year when Nash was picked up on a drug charge. But Nash again was cleared. (B1) . . . Now based in Tarzana, Nash, 66, says he is a legitimate businessman trying to live a quiet, respectable life.