Ventura’s Scott Is in a Big Rush

Brandon Scott runs like he’s trying to make up for lost time. He is.

Scott, a 5-foot-8 freshman running back for Ventura College, shattered a 22-year-old school rushing record with a 310-yard performance in a 29-22 Western State Conference victory last weekend over Pierce.

Scott rushed for two touchdowns and broke a 29-year-old school record with 41 carries.

It was the third time this season Scott turned in an explosive

performance

and was selected WSC player of the week. Scott ranks first in the conference with 850 yards rushing.

All this despite being plagued by a pinched nerve in his shoulder that has caused Scott to miss one game and only recently healed.

“It got better,” Scott said. “It got a lot better.”

Scott has come a long way--literally and figuratively.

He moved from his native New Jersey after a one-year hiatus from school and enrolled at Ventura. Scott trailed after Ventura Coach Terry Morris, an assistant in 1995 at Lambuth University in Jackson, Tenn., where Scott redshirted as a freshman.

“I called Coach Morris and told him I wanted to go back to school,” Scott said. “I got to thinking about it and I decided to move.”

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Six times the Moorpark women’s volleyball team has gone the distance this season. Six times the Raiders have won.

Moorpark (11-1, 8-0 in WSC play) beat Ventura on Tuesday, 8-15, 13-15, 15-10, 15-12, 15-13. Last week, Moorpark outlasted Hancock, 16-14, 15-4, 13-15, 14-16, 16-14.

“It’s been an incredible kind of run,” Moorpark Coach Steve Burkhart said. “We get to the fifth game and we just believe it’s ours.”

All-conference middle blocker Michelle Capuano, the only player back from last year’s team that placed fifth in the state, ranks third in the WSC with a .375 kill percentage and third with 102 kills.

Middle blocker Jolene Small ranks third with 14 solo blocks and Shelly Payne leads the WSC with 429 assists.

Moorpark plays host to Santa Barbara (12-2, 8-0) on Friday in a first-place showdown.

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Cal Lutheran is undefeated in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men’s soccer matches and the regular season is over.

But the Kingsmen can’t yet claim the SCIAC championship.

They begin play Saturday in a three-game round-robin playoff tournament that will determine the conference champion and any NCAA postseason bids.

Cal Lutheran Coach Dan Kuntz likes his team’s possibilities for both.

“We’re holding our breaths,” Kuntz said. “Right now, our whole focus is on SCIAC.

“I do think this is a good team, and on a good day, they’re going to win. But you never know. We have to wait and see.”

The Kingsmen (13-2-1, 7-0-0), the 14th-ranked team in the NCAA Division III National Soccer Coaches Assn. of America poll, will play Occidental at 1 p.m. Saturday at Cal Lutheran in the first round.

The tournament continues Tuesday with Cal Lutheran at Pomona-Pitzer and Nov. 8 with the Kingsmen playing host to Claremont-Mudd.

The tournament includes the top four teams in the conference at the end of the regular season, with the results counted in each team’s final SCIAC record.

Both of Cal Lutheran’s conference losses last year came in the SCIAC playoffs. A 2-1 loss to Pomona-Pitzer and a 6-1 rout at the hands of Claremont-Mudd dropped the Kingsmen into a share of the conference title with those teams and ended any hopes Cal Lutheran had of gaining an NCAA Division III West regional playoff berth.

This time, the Kingsmen enter the tournament with a 13-game unbeaten streak.

Claremont-Mudd, which Cal Lutheran beat during the regular season, is in second place with a 6-1 conference record. Pomona-Pitzer is third with a 5-2 conference record.

“What we’re trying to do is just look at each game,” Kuntz said. “The key is for us to play well and not look ahead.

“I think that’s where we might have slid a little bit last year. Now, at least, the players are going in with their eyes open.”

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Staff writer Vince Kowalick and correspondent Lauren Peterson contributed to this notes column.