CSUN, FLOWERS BLOOM : CSUN 63, BOISE 23.

Byline: Howard Beck Daily News Staff Writer

The Jim Fenwick era began Saturday night, not with a subtle, meet-the-new-boss victory, but with a resoundingly convincing, oh-so-loud greeting to the Division I world.

With Fenwick at the helm for his first game, Cal State Northridge destroyed Division I-A Boise State 63-23 before a record crowd of 26,824 at Bronco Stadium.

Senior quarterback Aaron Flowers, Fenwick's former pupil at Valley College, reunited now at CSUN, gave his old teacher a nice welcome, throwing for 442 yards and a school-record six touchdowns to begin Fenwick's career 1-0.

``Huge. Huge. Huge,'' was the way linebacker Marc Goodson described the win.

CSUN begins the season with three straight road games at Division I-A schools (next up is Hawaii), and the Matadors wanted badly to start with a win, knowing it only gets tougher.

And for Fenwick, who's never shy about admitting his anxiety, the win was a relief as much as anything.

``I'm as surprised as anybody,'' he said of the blowout. ``I'm real happy, real happy.''

Early on, it didn't look like the Matadors would be celebrating.

Boise State jumped out to a 16-0 lead by the 13:30 mark in the second quarter, with running back Reggie Etheridge and quarterback Nate Sparks running wild. Etheridge, of Lompoc, rushed for 43 yards in the first quarter-plus, and Sparks, formerly of Bakersfield College, rushed for 56 and passed for 122 and two touchdowns in the first half, most of that in the first quarter.

CSUN appeared to be in for a long night. But the Matadors stormed back with three second-quarter touchdowns, a 3-yard pass from Flowers to Comer, a 2-yard run by Jahi Arnold and a 25 yard pass from Flowers to Marcus Harvey.

That ugly deficit had suddenly turned into a 21-16 halftime lead.

``We knew we could move the ball, even on the first two drives,'' said Flowers, describing the early sputtering as ``weird.'' ``There's a lot of senior leadership on this team that brought us back from the 16-point deficit. Finally, we just realized, we're better than these guys. Let's just go play football.''

And play football they did, largely on a series of quick, short passes, slants and shovel passes, which kept the Broncos defense from getting into their coverage. It worked beautifully, as three Matador receivers finished with 100-plus yards: Comer, Drew Hill and Aaron Arnold.

The defense turned it around as quickly as the offense did. Etheridge and Sparks never did as much damage as they did on the game's first two drives, both of which ended in touchdowns.

``I guess it just wasn't working,'' Goodson said of the Matadors' defensive alignment, a three-man front.

CSUN switched to a four-man line and left the linebackers up closer instead of dropping back, and the Broncos offense suddenly looked very ordinary.

``You never say never,'' Goodson said. ``Obviously we felt down, but this team is a turnaround team. ... It's our first game. We just had to get in sync.''

Goodson says he knew when things were about to go the Matadors' way. It was the third drive of the game, with CSUN down 16-0, and Boise was forced to punt for the first time.

``I was looking across at their end, saying to him, `This could be the turning point of the game.' It happened,'' Goodson said smiling.

The Matadors poured it on in the second half, with touchdown passes of 10 yards and 31 yards to Comer, a 59 yard touchdown strike to Arnold, a Marcus Harvey 1-yard touchdown run, a 13-yard touchdown pass to Arnold and a 22-yard scoring run by Arnold.

After what could only be described as an odd first half, the Matadors somehow held a 21-16 lead when they hit the locker room.

Boise scored touchdowns on its first two possessions of the game, then blocked a Brian Walker punt into the CSUN end zone for a safety, and boom, the Broncos had a 16-0 lead with 13:30 left in the half.

The Matadors had done nothing to that point. Etheridge was running wild -- 46 yards rushing and 17 receiving -- and Sparks was making timely passes to wide-open receivers. CSUN, meanwhile, had no offense to speak of.

Then the oddities arrived.

First, Boise St. coach Houston Nutt, in a nutty move, pulled Sparks for backup quarterback Bart Hendricks and subbed Nicko Tatum for Etheridge. Boise's momentum instantly died, as the Hendricks-Tatum tandem got nowhere, and the Broncos were forced to punt for the first time.

It got weirder after that. As CSUN mounted its comeback, the Matadors managed to get two personal foul calls on their first two touchdowns, both times for celebrating in the end zone. They weathered the setbacks as Manny Marquez converted a pair of very long point-after kicks that followed the penalties.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) CSUN quarterback Aaron Flowers takes charge, running the ball past Boise State's Jayson Payne for a first down.

(2) CSUN's Kaleon Green (5) and Howard Henry (2) wrap up Boise State running back Reggie Etheridge (20) in the Big West contest.

Associated Press