The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 64

i i ITT1 I1 1 a I TIi I I I 1 I 1 I C1-4-. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1995 LOS ANGELES TIMES Valley Sports A i Right From the Start, It's Valley 5 Over Pierce -'A -r---. 'im At i rT'. A i V-' Vardanian, right, a former Olympic By FlERNANDO IX)MINGUEZ times staff writer iw, champion for the Soviet Union, is the personal trainer of aspiring U.S. lifter Lance ANNE CUSACK Lot Angeles Timei Vermeil, a student at Moorpark College.

the Bar Passing and we'ghtWting champion trained by Vardanian, flashes an "I-told-you-so" look. He says Vardanian, KJL 111C1 W1V 111U1C xliaill U1U11 wnu nas uvea wrvr aiviv UJR.C3 a gcnuc uon, a iuue prodding, before Yury Vardanian agrees to tho romiAct Since lyai, is fiercely competitive. "I bet him one time that he couldn't do five snatch 1 1 fijo 1 i i i vmvu. -B- He rises from one of the workout benches in 1 OfiOtllCltl I jti nuiio muii t1IC tn ho a full weighthftmg room at Moorpark College, Vermeil said, phis' red shirt and warmup pants a visual reminder of his This time, the prize was only personal satisfaction, days as a sports icon in the former Soviet Union, and tto tit i tr strjdes to the barbell loaded with weight-plates. tO Weiffhtll fterS i pounds worth of weight-plates.

C151U11UCiJ 0ne the f1 ty "Now?" he asks in English, a language he stiil has not Cal1' Pound-for-Pound-the we.ght- mastered, as a photographer gets ready to snap his camera dickg awfly Even in his early days in the sporti before he became without doin as much as a nushun to stretch Vardanian, 39, smiles. These might not be the Olympic anintnational superstar, Vardanian was no pushover. men, without doing as mucn as a pusnup to stretcn A Born in Leninakan (now Gumn), Armenia, Vardanian Lltuscle8, Vardanian reaches down and with amazing Games or World Championships he once ruled, and he is became interested in weightlifting at age 8 by watching ipegd hoists the barbell to the shoulder girdle above his now a coach who hasn 1 llfted competitively a decade, his uncle Sergei compete He took up the sport fiv fthest. After a pause, he jerks the barbell over his head, but showboating still gives him a rush. years later and won the i65.p0und class at the junior tds "outstretched arms and legs perfectly still as the A few feet away, Lance Vermeil, a Moorpark student Please see LIFTER C16 Li.

By FERNANDO DOM INGUEZ TIMES STAFF WRITER VAN NUYS-Talk about your bad omens. Pierce College probably figured it would be a long night Saturday when kicker Mike Brandt-Spitzer missed the ball on the opening kickoff of a Western State Confer-, ence interdivisional game against Valley. The Brahmas knew for sure a few minutes later. Valley outplayed Pierce every which way to post a 49-20 victory homecoming crowd of 2,382 at Monarch Stadium. The Monarchs (6-0, 5-0 in conference play), ranked second in the state and third in the nation, had 561 yards to Pierce's 234 and might have finished with more if their starters had gone the route.

vxu As it was, sophomore Aaron Flowers completed 25 of 35 for a season-high 349 yards. He also threw three touchdown passes in little more than three The Brahmas (1-4, 1-3) have lost thcee; in a row and have allowed 98 points in their past two games. It was Valley's third consecutive victory over Pierce. 1 The Monarchs struck quickly against a soft Pierce defense that gave receivers' plenty of room. It took Valley four plays and 1 minute" 36 seconds to march 79 yards and score on the game's opening drive.

Flowers connected with receiver Eric1 Ruhle on a 44 -yard pass play to give! Valley a 7-0 lead. The pair hooked up again early in the; second quarter on a nine-yard pass that' widened the lead to 14-0. Flowers and! Ruhle set up the touchdown with a yard pass play on the previous play. Running back Marcus Harvey increased the lead to 21-0 on a three-yard run with! 5:47 remaining in the first half, but Pierce answered about a minute later with, 37-yard touchdown on a screen pass from David Muir to Jermaine Brooks. The Monarchs capped the first-half! scoring on a three-yard run by Elijah; Raphael with 46 seconds to play before) intermission.

Pierce couldn't contain Flowers or the) Monarch running attack in the first halfjj Flowers passed for 300 yards and he Monarchs had 425 yards to Pierce's 101." The Brahmas pulled to within 28-14 with 3:08 left in the third quarter on a 17-yard pass from Muir to Jason Howard. However, Raphael returned the ensuing kickoff 47 yards to set up a one-yard! touchdown run by Harvey early in the' fourth quarter. Harvey had 90 yards in 13 carries and Raphael finished with 69 in 1 1. Muir completed 16 of 29 for 142 yards. Just a Day at the Beach for Glendale Cross-country: Vaqueros show superior depth in outrunning Rancho Santiago for title at Santa Barbara I Invitational.

Hernandez wins.M By JOHN ORTEGA TIMES STAFF WRITER i SANTA BARBARA Glendale College won Round 1 of what is expected to be three-round battle against Rancho Santi-; ago in the men's race Saturday of the Santa Barbara Invitational cross-country meet at Shoreline Park. Undefeated Glendale and Rancho Santi-; ago were regarded as the top two teams in the state entering the meet, but after! posting a 43-46 victory, the Vaqueros are! the team to beat. At least until they meet; again in the Johnie Invitational on Oct. 28. Along with El Camino, they are expected to battle for the state title Nov.

18. 1 "Hey, this is just the first of three races against them," Glendale Coach Eddie Lo-! pez said. "But I'm happy with the way" we', ran. I'm real satisfied with the way the; guys ran together as a group. Now we've got to stay focused." Moorpark's Eleazar Hernandez pulled! away from East L.A.'s Ivo Rodrigues in the final mile to win the four-mile race in 21 minutes 10 seconds.

T.X Glendale, led by Ramon Serratos, artct; 1 Rancho Santiago, paced by Jose Ranged each had seven individuals among the toj'! 25 runners after the first mile. By two" miles, Glendale had six and Rancho Santi; ago had five of the top 15. The serious racing started after thafas the field descended a quarter-mile-long Please see MEET, C17 i yalley Water Si Sea of Ethnic Tension minium ii. i.i nuMl.tinmiwt..miuiiii.iU mtrmmmmmmmmmmmm 11 1 1 mil 1 Polo Awash Asked to describe this season's Valley water polo team in biological terms, Krauss chuckles in a low tone and runs a hand over his floppy blond hair. "We have the same phylum but different classes, and we're trying to get them to work together," he said.

In his 24th season as coach of the Monarchs (12-7-2), Krauss has tenuous control of a team divided by race, maturity and work ethic. The 51 -year old coach says it is one of his better teams, though certainly among the most fragmented. "We're a team, but we're three or four teams that need to come together as one," two-meter man Armond Abramian said. Among the players on the Valley roster are seven Armenians, an Iranian goalie, an Italian defender and another of Dutch descent. The team's redshirt Please see POLO, C16 in uienaaie wun nis wne ana mree sons puuuus aim uu warmups ana me sixin naa DAVID BLUMENKRANTZ For The Times interception on Northridge's first possession, setting up a Mustang field goal.

"We have to quit turning the ball over," Baldwin said. "I don't have the answer to turnovers." The Matadors' next two drives each penetrated Western New Mexico territory, but one ended on an incomplete fourth-and-10 pass at the 39 and the other on interception No. 4, at the 21. The Matadors scored early in the fourth quarter, when Millis hit Tim Hilton with a 55-yard bomb, which set up an 11 -yard touchdown pass to Marquis Jones. Northridge had two late opportunities, but Darren Walton lost a fumble at the Mustang 40 and Millis threw incomplete on fourth and goal from the eight.

r- MBy TRIS WYKES iTIJIgS STAFF WRITER ill Krauss walked the halls of Valley College last week, a black jf. jb-jf- piasuc urieicaae cramiiieu wiui papers in one hand. guarantee you've never seen a office like this," Krauss, the School's water polo coach, said with a fruth in advertising. The affable JfCtauss, who doubles as chairman of Valley's biology department, works out rbt along room filled with, among other f-thtngs, taxidermy exhibits, water polo equipment and jars of marine specimens, There's an elk, a bighorn sheep and a mountain goat up there," said Krauss, pointing to the creatures' stuffed and heads. "And that's a cross Jween a bobcat and a house cat.

It's frfh Germany." i i 1 Stepping Down Valley goalie Serjik Amiryan says: "Because of the different cultures the players don't want to get close to each other, they're not comfortable." in Class, Northridge Gets Outclassed Anyway, 27-8 game played before 1,431 fans at North Campus Stadium. Northridge (1-4) moved the ball well. Clayton Millis completed 20 of 41 passes for 318 yards, but the problem was his four interceptions. "It's frustrating because it seemed like we had opportunities, but a lot of overs," Millis said. "I think I made some bad reads and it hurt us.

And I take full blame for that." By contrast, Western New Mexico's Alfred Montez, one of the highest-rated small-college quarterbacks in the nation, completed 20 of 33 passes for 177 yards and no interceptions. The Mustangs had 325 yards of offense. Western New Mexico, enrollment 2,500, took control at the outset. Northridge trailed, 7-0, before it touched the ball. The Mustangs (3-3) returned the opening kickoff to the Northridge 49, then took four plays and 42 seconds to score on Marcus Dickson's three-yard run.

The Matadors helped out Western New Mexico for the rest of the half by turning the ball over three times. The first was Chad Marsalek's fumble at the Mustang 18. Millis threw interceptions on two of the Matadors' next three possessions. Each interception set up a touchdown, giving the Mustangs a 21-0 lead at the half. "We came out flat," Northridge Coach Dave Baldwin said.

"We were just stunned in the first half." In the second half, Millis threw his third By 7EFF FLETCHER TIMES iSTAFF WRITER ORTHRIDGE-The Cal State Northridge football team lost again, which is not thai shocking. The Matadors have lost four ih.tftow. fBut this defeat was different. On Saturday- night the Matadors' loss was not 'against an established Division I-AA pro-fgKurwith three times the scholarships Northridge has, as were the previous three. This, time it was to a Division II team, amcj the Matadors have no excuses other than six turnovers.

Western New Mexico beat Northridge, 27-8, on Saturday night in a nonconference.