Sore Hamstring Forces Standifer to Miss Game

Safety Steve Standifer, one of Cal State Northridge’s football captains, will not travel with the team to Las Cruces, N.M., for Saturday night’s game against New Mexico State because of a sore right hamstring.

Coach Dave Baldwin planned to bring Standifer and use him only in case of an emergency, but changed his mind Thursday.

“I figured he’d probably be three-quarters healthy and I’d put him in and he’d get hurt again,” Baldwin said.

The Matadors open Big Sky Conference play next week with a game at Northern Arizona, and Baldwin wants to make sure Standifer is ready for that game.

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Medical leave: Moorpark High’s Shane Brogdon, a linebacker and fullback, will not play this season because of a rare spinal condition.

The 6-foot, 200-pound junior said he has been diagnosed with syringomyelia, a condition in which a cavity forms at neck level in the spinal cord. The cavity gradually expands, filling with fluid, and can cause damage to nerve fibers.

Brogdon, a projected two-way starter, said playing would risk paralysis.

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Moving up: Bill Papagno has been hired as boys’ soccer coach at Crescenta Valley High. Papagno, 43, has been the Falcons’ junior varsity coach the past three seasons.

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Big Sky footbrawl?: Montana, the top football team in the Big Sky Conference, faces a controversy. Missoula police are investigating a brawl early Sunday involving Montana football players and members of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Coach Mick Dennehy said he was aware of the incident and that some players were involved, but he did not know to what extent. “We’ll wait until we get the facts from the police department,” Dennehy said. Athletic director Wayne Hogan said he believed between six and eight players were involved.

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Short on academics: Recruit Christa Saindon, a former All-American shortstop at Cypress College, failed to meet the academic requirements to enroll at Cal State Northridge.

Matador Coach Janet Sherman initially thought Saindon would be able to take the required classes this fall and be at Northridge for the 1997 softball season. This week Sherman said she would not make it.

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Painful separation: Cal State Northridge soccer goalkeeper Victor Lopez, a freshman from Redwood City, Calif., is out indefinitely with a separated shoulder. Lopez will be replaced by Jorge Buery, a former Chatsworth High standout.