O’Brien Kicks Westlake Into Overtime Loss

Midway through the fourth quarter of Friday night’s football game between Westlake and Thousand Oaks, a Westlake senior shouted encouragement to his teammates.

“Come on,” he yelled, “this is the last time we’ll ever play these guys.”

That’s too bad.

For the second time in three seasons, Westlake and Thousand Oaks went to overtime to decide a winner.

This time the winner was Thousand Oaks, as Mike O’Brien’s 27-yard field goal in the second round of OT gave the Lancers a 24-21 win over the Warriors at Thousand Oaks High.

After four quarters, the score was knotted at 21 in the Marmonte League opener for both teams. At that point, Lancer sophomore Marc Monestime had 224 yards rushing on 36 carries.

In the overtime, each team got the ball at the 10-yard line with four downs to score. Thousand Oaks went first and came up a yard short of a touchdown.

On Westlake’s first play, the Warriors (2-2) decided to try a 27-yard field goal. But Vic Topper’s kick was wide left.

In 1983, Westlake had used the same strategy, kicking on the first play after Thousand Oaks failed to score, and emerged a 9-6 winner.

But this time, a high snap helped do the Warriors in.

“I was confident he would make it,” Westlake Coach George Contreras said. “It was a chip shot.”

In the second overtime, Westlake got the ball but failed to score.

The Lancers (2-2), then threw an incompletion before O’Brien’s winning boot.

“I wanted to come in on the first play and kick,” O’Brien said, “because it was straight on. All I wanted was an opportunity.”

He got the opportunity because Thousand Oaks was able to tie the game with 8:40 left in the fourth quarter.

Quarterback Dan Nagelmann rolled out to his right and scored from four yards out to make it 21-21.

At that point, the game had practically belonged to Monestime, a 5-10, 175-pound tailback.

In the first half alone, he carried the ball 20 times for 159 yards. His yards, gained mostly on sweeps to the right, helped the Lancers forge a 14-14 tie at the half.

On the Lancers’ second possession, they moved 88 yards in six plays, the key being a 52-yard completion from Nagelmann to Kevin Medeiros.

Three plays later, Medeiros caught a 17-yard pass from Nagelmann for the game’s first score with 4:33 remaining in the opening quarter.

Westlake came back on its next possession, moving 66 yards in eight plays. Gary Wellman’s 16-yard run made it 7-7, following Topper’s kick.

The next time Westlake got the ball,it needed just two plays to take a 14-7 lead. Steve Sidler ran 49 yards for a score with 9:19 remaining in the first half.

But Thousand Oaks tied it with 23 seconds left in the half, as Ryan Estes ran it in from two yards out.