Peter Campbell

Justin Vedder, Saddleback's record-setting quarterback, asked for a favor after his team beat Rancho Santiago, 25-16, in a Mission Conference Central Division football game Saturday at Santa Ana Stadium. The victory assured Saddleback (9-0, 5-0) a divisional title and a bid to a post-season bowl game. It also was the 15th consecutive victory for the Gauchos, who are ranked No. 1 in the state and second in the nation. "Could you guys put something in about the defense," he said.

It is as likely that the U.S. and Yugoslav water polo teams will play a close, physical match as it is that visitors to San Diego will be taken to Sea World. Well, the Yugoslav team visited Shamu Wednesday afternoon. In the evening, the gold and silver medal teams from the 1984 Olympics played to an 8-8 tie in front of a sellout crowd of 1,300 fans at Canyonview pool at UC San Diego. These clubs, which return many of the same players from their Olympic teams, are familiar with ties.

In the months since the last Olympic Games, the United States water polo team has quietly faded into retirement. One star at a time, the water polo players who carried the U.S. hopes for more than a decade, who won Olympic silver medals in 1984 and 1988, who modeled their California tans for a famous pinup poster, have returned to their landlubber lives as doctors and lawyers and real estate developers. Terry Schroeder? Retired. Craig Wilson? Retired. Peter Campbell? Retired. Jody Campbell?

Eagle and skipper Rod Davis could get off to a fast start in the first week of America's Cup competition off Perth but will face some severe tests at the end of the first round of challenger trials. The Newport Harbor Yacht Club's entry will race lightly regarded Challenge France in its first match race Saturday.

Saddleback College football Coach Bill Cunerty likes to complain about the difficulty of his team's schedule. But he's only joking. Cunerty knows he won't get the slightest bit of sympathy from other Orange County coaches because their teams play nearly the same set of opponents. When Saddleback travels to Long Beach for a Mission Conference game at 7 tonight, it will be the Gauchos' third consecutive game against a team ranked in the top 10 in Southern California.

Daylon McCutcheon did nothing to dispel the notion that he is one of the nation's finest high school football players Saturday night. Before 26,295 at Anaheim Stadium, the La Puente Bishop Amat High senior showed skills and speed not often seen on this level. But it was not enough. Showing strength and balance on both sides of the ball, Santa Ana Mater Dei beat Bishop Amat's one-dimensional attack, 28-21, to claim the Southern Section Division I crown.

Food poisoning couldn't slow Mater Dei running back Steve Bodnar and neither could Esperanza, as Bodnar rushed for 176 yards and three touchdowns to lead the second-ranked Monarchs to a 38-28 victory in a nonleague game at Valencia High Friday. "I felt a little sick this morning, but I took a lot of fluids and I felt excellent out there tonight," said Bodnar, who scored the final touchdown on a seven-yard run with 41 seconds remaining. But Bodnar was almost the goat.

Rather than take all the credit, Michele Granger said everyone pitched in. Granger, Ella Vilche and Rhonda Wheatley combined on a two-hitter Thursday night, and the United States beat Puerto Rico, 4-1, to win the gold medal in women's softball at the Pan American Games. "This gives me a lot of pride," Granger said. "I'm sure I'll look back on this medal in 5 or 10 years and I'll remember everybody. This is a reward for playing together." It was the eighth time in nine games that the U.S.

The 44 United States swimmers who competed in the Olympics at Seoul were accompanied and advised by a contingent of 17 coaches, including Richard Quick, the designated head coach. Quick, as coach of the outstanding University of Texas women's team, had several of his Longhorn swimmers on the U.S. team. He was responsible for coaching them all the way through, as well as making the decisions about which swimmers would swim which legs of relays.

COSTA MESA 6:30pm Jazz The revitalization of swing music has ignited interest in traditional, or classic, jazz. This weekend's Costa Mesa/Orange County Classic Jazz Festival, today through Sunday at the Doubletree Hotel Orange County Airport, features 18 classic jazz bands offering music from the 1920s through the '50s.