Northridge Is Making Changes on the Run

After trying for weeks to improve the team’s running attack, Coach Ron Ponciano said Cal State Northridge (4-1, 3-0 in Big Sky Conference) are making more adjustments for its game at Cal State Sacramento (2-4, 0-3) on Saturday.

“We are moving [left tackle] David San Vicente to left guard and [left guard] Mike Barnes to left tackle,” Ponciano said. “We felt Barnes is quicker and better at stopping guys coming from the edge.”

San Vicente, a 6-foot-3, 300-pound senior from Birmingham High, has started at tackle for the Matadors since his freshman year in 1995. Barnes, 6-2 and 285 pounds, is a senior transfer from Arizona State.

The Matadors have 341 yards rushing, fewest in the Big Sky.

BASKETBALL

The West Valley Jewish Center will hold a ground-breaking ceremony for its new gym on Sunday at noon in West Hills. Coach Steve Lavin of UCLA will be among the people participating in the ceremony. The gym will cost more than $4 million and is expected to take eight months for construction.

SOCCER

The L.A. Force won the WAGS girls’ under-17 tournament Monday in Washington, D.C., with a 1-0 victory over the San Ramon Crunch.

Kim Taylor, a sophomore from Chaminade High, scored 10 minutes into the second half for the Force, which had a 5-0 record in the tournament, scoring 11 goals and allowing two.

Fourteen of Force’s 15 players are from the Valley-Ventura County region.

Midfielder Michelle French of Cal State Northridge was selected Big Sky Conference women’s co-offensive player of the week along with Holly Jones, a forward from Northern Arizona.

French, a freshman from Chaminade High, had two goals and two assists to help the Matadors to three victories last week. She had a goal and two assists in a 4-0 victory over The Master’s on Oct. 5 and scored the first goal in a 2-0 victory over Cal State Sacramento on Oct. 11.

French has played in eight of Northridge’s 14 matches, but she is tied for the team lead in scoring with seven points.

SOFTBALL

Freshman Chrissy Davie, a graduate of Agoura High, was named to the all-tournament team after helping Purdue beat Ball State, 2-0 and 5-2, to claim the championship of the Boilermaker Fall Classic last weekend.

Davie, Boilermaker right-fielder, went five for 13 in the tournament.