THE COLLEGES : CSUN’s Soccer Team Uses Defense as Steppingstone to Winning Season

Make no mistake. Cal State Northridge’s soccer team does it with defense.

The Matadors, who will play host to Cal State Hayward in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division II West regional on Saturday, have scored 28 goals all season.

The leading scorer for CSUN (10-4-4) is junior forward Jim Hofferber, who has seven goals. To put that in perspective, consider that two seasons ago Joey Kirk had 30 goals--two more than Northridge’s total.

“If we played defense like we’ve played offense this season, we wouldn’t have won a game,” said Marwan Ass’ad, CSUN’s coach.

Head of the class: He signed with Cal State Northridge amid substantial fanfare. He finished his eligibility in relative obscurity. But through it all, Lance Harper, a backup tailback, never complained.

An All-City running back at San Fernando High, Harper was supposed to be CSUN’s next great tailback after Mike Kane, the school’s career rushing leader, finished his career in 1986. But then came Albert Fann, who started as a freshman in 1987 and has been an All-Western Football Conference selection for three seasons.

Harper gained 1,101 yards in his career, including 475 as a sophomore. Harper was off to a fine start last season but sustained a season-ending knee injury in CSUN’s fourth game.

“He was never the same after that,” said Bob Burt, CSUN’s coach. “But he is still a fine back and probably our best blocker.”

Being there: Gena Jauregui of Northridge finished 29th in the Division II cross-country regionals, falling well short of duplicating her 10th-place effort of last season. However, Coach Don Strametz was pleased just to have her running.

“She helps the team just by being out there,” Strametz said. “She’s not in the kind of shape she’d like to be in at this stage of the season, but she’s good enough to help us.”

Jauregui, Northridge’s No. 3 runner was hampered by a thyroid gland infection for much of this season.

On the run: Runners from the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. dominated the Division II cross-country regional, winning both individual titles and team titles. In addition, seven of the nine teams that qualified for the national championships in Marshalls Creek, Pa., on Saturday are from the CCAA.

Led by champion Stephane Franke of Cal Poly Pomona--CCAA runners finished 1-2-4-5 in the men’s race and 15 placed in the top 20. In the women’s meet, CCAA runners finished also 1-2-4-5 and 12 placed in the top 20.

Trading places: Shannon Culver might have been the happiest man on the Pierce College football team when quarterback Jamie Grossman returned to the starting lineup two weeks ago against Valley.

Culver, a wide receiver, alternated with Mike Knieriem at quarterback as Grossman’s replacement against Santa Monica. And it was Culver who was chased and hit just about every time he dropped back to pass.

“I don’t think Shannon was too thrilled about playing back there,” Pierce Coach Bob Enger said.

After catching one pass for 45 yards against Valley, Culver had a season-high nine receptions for 182 yards--including a 77-yard touchdown--against Bakersfield on Saturday.

Staff writers Mike Hiserman, John Ortega and Brendan Healey contributed to this notebook.