CSUN, FLOWERS BLOOM : CSUN 63, BOISE ST. 23.

Byline: Howard Beck Daily News Staff Writer

There are many ways to say hello to your new colleagues at the new job. Jim Fenwick's ``howdy'' to the Division I football world Saturday night was somewhat less than subtle.

As far as get-your-attention greetings go, it ranked somewhere between ``Seinfeld's'' Kramer and the Chicago Bulls' pregame ceremony.

Fenwick made his debut as Cal State Northridge head coach in impressive fashion, with a record-setting 63-23 outburst that left host Boise State floored. The win gave another boost to the rising Division I-AA CSUN program and put a major damper on Boise's celebration of its expanded stadium (a record 26,824 watched in dismay).

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.

``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 didn't expect it. . . . I'm as surprised as anybody,'' he said of the blowout. ``I'm real happy, real happy.''

CSUN's 63 points set a single-game record and the nine touchdowns tied a record. The previous high of 62 and and the previous nine-touchdown performance both came against Portland State in 1968.

Early on, it appeared as though the Matadors would be setting records for futility. The 16-0 deficit was their largest since a 19-0 deficit in an eventual loss to Northern Arizona last year.

Boise State took that lead by the 13:30 mark in the second quarter, with running back Reggie Etheridge and quarterback Nate Sparks running wild. Etheridge 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 Brian 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.

``We kind of broke their confidence a little bit, we shocked them and surprised them there in the second quarter,'' Fenwick said.

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' initial 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.''

Boise coach Houston Nutt, also making his coaching debut, said experience was the difference, noting that CSUN was led by a senior quarterback and senior receivers who know their system well.

``Our youth took over in a hurry,'' he said.

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.

It seemed amazing, however, that CSUN led at halftime, following an odd first half that got stranger 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.

``If we miss those extra points, that puts a different light on the game,'' Fenwick said.

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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