The CLU football team dropped its NCAA Division III first-round playoff game at Linfield, 38-17, Saturday afternoon.

On his blog, Star columnist David Lassen gave this summary at the final whistle:

"Linfield's defense had four interceptions, sacked CLU quarterback Jericho Toilolo eight times and held CLU to 220 total yards, which was more than enough to protect the 31-3 lead Linfield built in the second quarter.

Linfield quarterback Aaron Boehme passed for 114 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for 99 yards and another score to lead Linfield (10-0) into a second-round game with Mary Hardin-Baylor of Texas next week. The site will be announced today.

More to come later, and in Sunday's edition of The Star."

Running its win streak to seven games, the Cal Lutheran football team clinched at least a share of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title with a 45-3 win at La Verne Saturday.

CLU (7-1, 5-0) can claim the title outright, and earn its first NCAA Division III playoff berth, with a win next Saturday against Redlands.

On a day when the Kingsmen were able to clear their bench, Antoine Adams ran for two touchdowns, Bobby Rodrigues and Derek Martinez had one each, and Jericho Toilolo -- the first of five CLU quarterbacks -- threw for a score. But the biggest play was Derek Wilson's 89-yard kickoff return, erasing a short-lived 3-0 La Verne lead.

(From David Lassen in La Verne)

The Leopards are now 0-8, 0-6.

Community College football

Cerritos 36, Ventura 35: VC tries for 2 and loses by 1 to Cerritos by Joe Curley in Ventura.

Santa Ana 51, Moorpark 36: Shultis' huge day not enough as Moorpark loses by David Lassen in Santa Ana.

Keep checking back for my WSC North men's basketball preview, which I should post sometime around midday today.

Until then, you can enjoy the package on Ventura College basketball and its coaching staff which ran in today's print editions.

Here is my A1 story and here is David Lassen's excellent column.

From Star teammate David Lassen:

Lydell Sargeant's view of the USC football team proved to be all too accurate.

Sargeant, the only Southern Californian on the Penn State roster - he played at Cabrillo High in Lompoc - talked earlier in the week about how he consistently spoke well of the Trojans during his time in State College, Pa.,

"I pump up all the USC guys when I was going through college because I know them," said Sargeant, who attended USC summer football camps and played in all-star games with some of the current Trojans.

"I've always said I think Mark (Sanchez) is the best quarterback I've ever seen personally."
And so, of course, Sanchez went out and completed 28 of 35 passes for 413 yards, tying a Rose Bowl record with four touchdown passes.

"Mark did a good job throwing to the receivers that were open and really reading our coverages," Sargeant said.

Here is today's college coverage:

NCAA Division III

Cal Lutheran 23, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 14: CLU earns a victory, but it's one sided by David Lassen in Claremont

Community College

Bakersfield 30, Moorpark 0: Moorpark makes too many mistakes by Loren Ledin in Moorpark
Ventura Hall of Fame induction ceremony: VC honors its stars from the past by Joe Curley in Ventura

NCAA Division I

UCLA 23, Stanford 20: Craft makes up for poor play by Ken Peters, Associated Press, in Pasadena
USC 69, Washington State 0: USC lives up to its favorite status by Greg Bell, Associated Press, in Pullman, Wash.
College notebook: Belak-Berger putting her best foot forward by Rhiannon Potkey

Community College

Canyons 48, Moorpark 3: Canyons routs Moorpark by Joe Curley in Santa Clarita.
Pasadena City 38, Ventura 21: Pasadena stuns VC in the fourth quarter by Loren Ledin in Ventura.

NCAA Division III
Cal Lutheran 44, Pomona-Pitzer 13: Kingsmen find winning formula by David Lassen in Thousand Oaks.

NCAA Division I
USC 28, Arizona State 0: USC win one-sided by John Nadal, Associated Press in Los Angeles.

Click on the jump for the unofficial box score of the Ventura College football team's 49-0 win over Santa Barbara City Saturday night at Larrabee Stadium, as it was filed by Star teammate David Lassen.

Star teammate David Lassen is covering No. 5 Moorpark College's visit to West Los Angeles this afternoon:

The Raiders trail 27-17 at the half, despite another touchdown run by sophomore Dan Mosier and a 1-yard run by quarterback Donald Senegal, who was elevated to the starting lineup today.

West L.A. quarterback Ryan Rosenthal has completed 19 of 22 passes for more than 250 yards at the half, which included one of the wildest scoring plays the veteran Lassen has ever seen.

Rosenthal caught his own deflected shovel pass and ran 34-yards for a touchdown. Now how do you score that, asked Lassen? Is is a run or a pass?