La Verne (6-0) Closes In on Another Title

La Verne’s football team is at it again.

Last year, the Leopards won the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title.

They took a major step toward their second consecutive title by beating Redlands on Saturday, 35-20.

Now, La Verne (6-0) is looking at a nine-game winning streak dating to last season.

“Is it really nine?” La Verne Coach Rex Huigens said. “Well, that’s great. We are doing a little better than expected. We’re really not that deep.”

Saturday, in a game that was expected to be a scrap between the SCIAC’s toughest teams, La Verne won easily. The Leopards took advantage of six turnovers and led in the third quarter, 35-6.

Although junior quarterback Ryan Campuzano threw only six passes, he completed five, three for touchdowns. And he ran for two more. Campuzano usually throws more, but still leads the SCIAC in passing efficiency (153.7). Running back Darren MacLellan leads the team and the conference in rushing with 833 yards.

“A few years ago, we would go into the game (against Redlands) thinking, ‘We could win this game,’ ” Huigens said. “Now we know that if we play well, we have the talent to win. We feel we should win, so it’s a little different attitude.”

La Verne is ranked third in the NCAA West Region poll and 23rd in the Columbus Multimedia Division III poll. Wisconsin La Crosse is the top-ranked team in the West Region and Central College of Iowa is second.

Redlands’ loss leaves surprising Occidental as La Verne’s main challenger. Occidental (6-0) showed that its record is no fluke when it beat Chapman two weeks ago, 30-20. Both La Verne and Occidental are 4-0 in SCIAC games. They will play in the season finale Nov. 12.

La Verne plays Chapman this week in an intriguing matchup. Although Chapman is not ranked and is in its first year, the Panthers (4-1-1) were generally considered to have the best talent in the Southland before losing to Occidental. A victory over Chapman might improve La Verne’s chances of moving up in the NCAA poll and thus qualifying for the playoffs.

“The most important thing to me personally is conference play,” Huigens said. “We might hold out a couple of players against Chapman to give them extra rest, but we want to win this game. Our ranking puts emphasis on this game for sure. When you have a chance to be ranked and go to the playoffs, that’s obviously something you want. But personally, I think conference is the most important thing.”

An NCAA committee votes on which team will be invited to the playoffs. La Verne won the SCIAC title last year and was not invited but Huigens figures that if his team wins the SCIAC title again, the rankings and the playoffs might take care of themselves.

“We got off the blocks faster than I thought we would,” Huigens said. “Our first (string) guys are playing really well. But we need to stay healthy.”

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All five of the Westmont and Azusa Pacific fall sports teams have been ranked in the NAIA top-25 polls at the same time this season. It is the second consecutive fall for Westmont and the first for Azusa Pacific that it has happened.

For Azusa Pacific, the women’s volleyball team (19-6) is No. 6 and the men’s cross-country team is No. 3--the highest rankings ever for both. The women’s cross-country team is No. 11, the women’s soccer team (10-4-1) is No. 19 and the men’s soccer team is No. 20.

All five of Westmont’s teams were ranked until Monday, when the Westmont women’s volleyball team (17-13) dropped out of the top 25. But the four other teams remain.

The Westmont men’s soccer team (13-3) is ranked third in the nation and has been in the top 25 every week of the season. Westmont has been ranked since midway through the 1984 season and has won six Golden State Athletic Conference titles in that span.

Westmont’s men’s cross-country team is No. 12, the women’s cross-country team is 13th and the women’s soccer team (11-4-2) is 10th.

College Division Notes

The Cal State Los Angeles volleyball team, ranked second in the nation, has been less than dominant since losing to top-ranked Bakersfield two weeks ago. Cal State L.A. followed that up by beating Cal State San Bernardino, but then was upset by No. 20 UC Riverside. On Friday, No. 19 Cal Poly Pomona extended the match to four games before the Golden Eagles won. The new poll comes out today.

Stephanie Fleischaker was named the new softball coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills. She was an assistant at Nevada Las Vegas last season and the head coach at Whittier two years ago, when the Poets finished 14-19. Fleischaker replaces Estela Gutierrez, who left after two years to work in the sporting goods industry. . . . Cal State Bakersfield’s men’s basketball team, two-time defending NCAA champion, will open practice with three new assistant coaches: Steve Barnes, Wade Green and Todd Lee. They replace three coaches who left: Erin Vines, Don Verlin and Henry Clark.

When Azusa Pacific’s football team lost to Chapman, 59-18, on Oct. 8, it was the worst defeat in school history.