Mater Dei vs. Servite a Hot Ticket

Friday’s football game at Cal State Fullerton between top-ranked Mater Dei and second-ranked Servite is expected to be a sellout and it is doubtful that tickets will be sold at the gate, Servite officials said.

About 6,000 tickets went on sale Monday at Servite and another 4,000 go on sale Wednesday at Mater Dei. Servite is the home team. The game begins at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are priced at $5 for adults and $2 for students and children. Servite students receive a free ticket with proper identification.

Ticket sale hours at Servite are 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. For information call (714) 774-7575 ext. 115 or ext. 142.

At Mater Dei tickets will be sold Wednesday from 11:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Thursday and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. For information call (714) 754-7711.

*

It’s surprising that Laguna Hills defensive end Jerry Hart should break his ankle two weeks ago on a blind-side hit by a 200-pound football player rather than being crushed by a 2,000-pound bull.

Hart, 18, spent last summer at a ranch in Elsinore learning the sport of bull-riding. He got pretty good at it, too, and plans on going back again as soon as the 1996 football season is over. At least that was Hart’s plan before he broke the fibula and another bone in his right foot on the opening kickoff, which, incidentally, was a touchback.

But the 190-pound Hart says he will return this season, maybe as a starter again in the Hawks’ ninth game against Costa Mesa. “I won’t let myself get down. I like to enjoy everything,” he said.

As for bull riding, Hart said he will be back at that, too. “It’s like riding a roller coaster.”

*

After Santa Ana Valley’s 56-0 loss to Mater Dei last month, more has become clear about who arranged the two-year contract between the teams.

Falcon Athletic Director Leon Smith recently took some of the blame for the agreement, saying he and former coach Scott Orloff consented to the contract with Mater Dei at the last minute because they needed to fill out the schedule.

“We both agreed,” Smith said. “It was like somebody had a gun to our head [to fill the open date].”

Orloff now coaches at Dana Hills.

*

It was one of those nights you want to forget, especially if you’re a supporter of Troy football. The Warriors lost to Foothill, 35-7, Thursday, but the evening’s frustrating tone was set earlier.

First, a bank of lights at Fullerton District Stadium went out four minutes before the scheduled kickoff and it took nearly 25 minutes for the power to come back on.

Referees had trouble marking the ball because there were no hash marks, and the line markers--usually painted into the turf--were inexplicably missing.

If that wasn’t enough, a gate at the north end of the stadium was inadvertently locked before the game, cutting off the access route to the field for Troy’s band.

*

Rancho Alamitos junior Alex Blanco, one of the county’s top running backs, is probably out for the season after suffering a knee injury in the Vaqueros’ 41-0 victory over Western. Blanco was hit from behind while making a cut and might have torn his left anterior cruciate ligament.

“The first doctor told me it was a tear and the second one said the ligament wasn’t completely torn,” said Blanco, who rushed 40 times for 331 yards and seven touchdowns in his first three games.

Blanco is scheduled to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging test today. Even if it shows his ligament is not torn, Blanco said he expects to miss at least four or five weeks.

*

John Selbe, who was to coach girls’ basketball at Kennedy, resigned Friday without coaching a game, said Kennedy girls’ athletic director Janet Berardi.

She said Selbe resigned to become the assistant athletic director at Loara. Selbe had previously coached girls’ basketball at Cypress and went 36-18 the two years from 1993-95.

Also contributing to this report were correspondent Michael Casey and staff writers Martin Henderson, Dave McKibben and Wendy Witherspoon.