COUGARS FOOTBALL BACK ON PROWL; COLLEGE HOLDING 1ST HOME GAME AFTER RETURN OF PROGRAM.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The bright glow of stadium lights and the smell of a parking lot barbecue will signal the return tonight of College of the Canyons football at Cougar Stadium as the newly formed team plays its home opener.

The Cougars have one victory and one defeat so far since the sport was resurrected this season after a 16-year absence.

The moments of gridiron glory are returning with the help of campus officials who, with support from Santa Clarita Valley residents who rallied for its return and local merchants who lent financial backing, worked to revive football at the college.

College President Dianne Van Hook and other local officials will take part in a short pregame ceremony. Kids ages 12 and under who come dressed in the team uniforms of their organized sports league - be it Little League, AYSO, PONY League or other organizations - will be admitted free to the 7 p.m. game, said Canyons spokeswoman John McElwain.

``It's our intention to make . . . a festival, and fill the stands,'' McElwain said. ``We're hoping people will come and see the wide-open action (of) community college football, and they'll want to come out again.''

Future home games - Oct. 3 against East L.A. College; Oct. 17, 24 and 31 against Allan Hancock College, Santa Barbara City College and Glendale Community College, respectively - also will have unique themes, granting free admission to senior citizens one game and to fans in costume at the Halloween match.

``The community said that they want football, and we want to make it (affordable) for them to come and watch,'' he added. Tickets are $5 for adults, and $2 for students 12 and under or those with school ID cards.

The group perhaps most heartened by the return of Cougar football are former College of the Canyons players who work or live in the Santa Clarita Valley.

``We're having a barbecue and tailgate party before the game,'' said John Grisaffi, a veteran of Cougar squads in the early 1970s who now lives in Newhall and works in Stevenson Ranch.

Grisaffi, 44, remembers that he briefly practiced with the football teams at Valley College and Pierce College before finding the friendly atmosphere at College of the Canyons a better fit.

As a middle linebacker, a punter and a guard, Grisaffi recalled once kicking a 73-yard punt during a game in which his arm was already bandaged and packed in ice from an injury in another play.

Now a father of two high school students, Grisaffi said the college has changed a lot since his playing days. ``There was nothing but onion groves back then,'' he said. ``The stadium was still being built. We played all our games at Hart High School.''

Grisaffi's Cougars teammate Enrique Lopez, now the athletic director at Valencia High School, also will be in the stands at Cougar Stadium. ``I was kind of sad when I heard . . . there was no more COC football. It was kind of hard to take, because I had a good experience there,'' Lopez said of the 1982 decision to drop the program. ``I'm ecstatic that it's coming back. It's bringing a lot of us together.''

A former Cougars tight end on the 1971 and '72 squads, Lopez had gone to high school in the San Fernando Valley and was among several squad members who had to submit an appeal to attend a college other than Valley or Pierce.

``We missed the opening game because all the players from the San Fernando Valley had to go to court to get permission to play because we were out of the area,'' Lopez said.

``My last year there, we all received a lifetime membership to all the (COC) football games. I can't find mine,'' he lamented.