CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK : No Chance to Pull Squirrel Out of His Hat

FULLERTON —  The flag was up, but Cal State Fullerton football Coach Gene Murphy’s squirrel derby never made it out of the gates Saturday.

“Squirrel derby” is the term Murphy uses for the wacky gadget plays he’s devised--the end-arounds, the flea-flickers, the assortment of fake punts and field goals.

He had a real beauty called in the third quarter of Saturday’s 37-35 loss to Cal State Long Beach, although spectators in Veterans Stadium wouldn’t have known. The Titans never got the play off.

On fourth down from the Long Beach 32-yard line, Murphy sent the field-goal unit in for what appeared to be a 48-yard Phil Nevin attempt.

The Titans feigned confusion; with the line in place and Nevin preparing for the kick, holder Bob Baiz jogged toward the sideline, yelling, “Where’s my mouthpiece? I need my mouthpiece!”

Here’s what was supposed to happen: As Baiz nears the sideline, Rory Ewing snaps the ball to Nevin, a former high school quarterback, and Nevin throws a pass to a wide-open Baiz downfield.

Here’s what happened: A 49er defender covered Baiz, Nevin never ordered a snap, and the Titans called timeout.

Fullerton then attempted the field goal, which was blocked, recovered by Long Beach and returned 30 yards. That set up a touchdown that cut the Titans’ lead to 28-27.

Even if the play had worked, officials could have ruled it a deliberate attempt to deceive an opponent, which is against NCAA rules.

“But we didn’t care,” Murphy said. “We just wanted to do anything we could to win the game.”

Murphy lost a starting cornerback two weeks ago when senior Nuygen Pendleton fell victim to a hit-and-run accident and injured his knee. Monday morning, Murphy fell victim to a verbal hit-and-run.

As Murphy walked by Titan Gym, a jogger ran by and said, “Coach, you gotta hold on to the football.” The jogger was referring to Fullerton quarterback Paul Schulte’s fumble, which Long Beach recovered with 2 minutes 14 seconds left and turned into a game-winning field goal Saturday.

Somewhat taken aback by the comment and not recognizing the jogger, the quick-witted Murphy wasn’t quick enough to reply.

“He just kept going, so I wasn’t going to say anything,” Murphy said. “Actually, I was kind of happy because the kid either went to the game or read about it in the sports pages.”

A little tidbit for Veterans Stadium spectators who witnessed Greg West’s acrobatic touchdown catch, in which the Fullerton receiver, sandwiched by three Long Beach defenders and teammate J.J. Celestine, jumped up for a pass, tipped the ball in the air and caught it as he lay on his back in the end zone: West, a 6-foot-2 junior from El Camino College, ran the wrong pattern.

“That’s why he and Celestine were in the same spot,” Murphy said.

That was about all West did wrong Saturday. He caught five passes for 108 yards and was named Fullerton’s offensive player of the game. Kerry Reed, a junior from Rancho Santiago College and Orange High School, also performed well, catching six passes for 106 yards.

Quote of the day: With a game Saturday at Big West Conference-leading San Jose State, Murphy was asked during Monday’s luncheon if a trip to Iraq might be more appealing than one to San Jose, where the 1-8 Titans will be decided underdogs.

“If there’s a good guarantee, I’d imagine we’d go,” Murphy said.

No Fullerton cross-country runners placed in the top 10 individually in Saturday’s Big West Conference meet at Fresno’s Woodward Park, but four Titan women finished among the top 23 to lead Fullerton to a third-place finish behind UC Irvine and Fresno State.

Senior Janell Dovalina was 17th with a 5,000-meter time of 18 minutes 39.5 seconds; junior Cami Howden (18:40.1) placed 18th; sophomore Kristin Peters (18:54.8) was 19th, and junior Therese Chunovich (19:01.9) was 23rd. Irvine’s Buffy Rabbitt won in 17:05.2.

The Titan men, led by senior Ray Trujillo’s 12th-place finish, were fifth behind Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Fresno State and Utah State. Trujillo covered the 8,000-meter course in 25:35.5, 33.3 seconds behind winner Jason Lienau of Fresno State.

Sophomore Mike Tansley (26:08.4) placed 19th; senior Tom Wright-Hay (26:22.4) was 22nd; senior Greg Nietzel (26:27.2) was 24th, and senior Mike Richardson (26:30.6) was 26th.

Sophomore Steve Frisone, recovering from a hip flexor and running his first race since Sept. 29, finished 36th. Frisone had been Fullerton’s top runner in September.

“He wasn’t physically or mentally ready to run, and that hurt us,” Titan Coach John Elders said. “If Steve was healthy, I think we would have finished third.”

Titan Notes

Fullerton quarterback Paul Schulte’s 343 yards on 20 of 34 attempts Saturday was the second-best passing game in Titan history. Dan Speltz holds the record with a 481-yard performance against Utah State last season. Schulte has moved into the No. 3 spot on Fullerton’s single-season passing list with 2,062 yards and has a chance to break Speltz’s record of 2,671 yards set in 1989.

Titan basketball fans can get their first look at the 1990-91 team during the Blue-Orange intra-squad scrimmage Nov. 9 at 8 p.m. in Titan Gym. The Titans will have two home exhibition games, against an Australian team (Nov. 17) and Christian Athletes (Nov. 21), before opening the season against Lamar in Beaumont, Tex., on Nov. 26. The Fullerton women’s team has an exhibition against a Bulgarian team (Nov. 17) before playing host to the season-opening Titan Classic, which includes Southwest Texas State, Cal State Northridge and Oregon State, Nov. 23-24.

Fullerton volleyball player Becky Howlett has moved into the nation’s top 20 in kills per game average, according to the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. Howlett, a freshman outside hitter, has a kills average of 4.57, which ranks her 18th. Junior middle blocker Stephanie Scofield ranks 10th in the nation in digs per game with a 4.43 average.