Valley Can’t Beat the Clock or Ventura on Opening Night

John Watkins, who led Canyon High to a Golden League championship last season but missed the playoff because he broke his wrist in the last regular season game, made his college debut in front of more than 1,000 people Saturday night.

Watkins, a freshman quarterback for Valley College who relieved starting quarterback Josh Davis for the second half, said it felt good to be back but wished he could have had more time.

“I think if I would have had one more minute I could have brought the team down the field and scored,” Watkins said.

As it was, Ventura College took a penalty for deliberate delay of game, thus killing about 35 seconds--and Valley’s chances of winning its opening game. In a game filled with errors, Ventura beat the Monarchs, 16-14.

Valley fumbled four times and lost three.

“I know we will be working on a lot of things next week,” Watkins said, “to make sure this stuff doesn’t happen again.”

That stuff was Valley matching every big play with an equally ugly one.

Down, 10-0, at halftime, Valley came out of the locker room and lost a fumble on its first play.

Five minutes and five Ventura plays later, Matt Fowler kicked one of his three field goals to put Ventura ahead, 13-0.

Midway through the third quarter, Watkins engineered a 12-play, 99-yard scoring drive that included long passes to John Jake and Leroy Bush to setup a 19-yard touchdown run by Denore Bausley. Harry Konstantinopolous added the extra point to cut Ventura’s lead to 13-7.

Eleven plays into the fourth quarter, Fowler kicked another field goal, this one from 27 yards, to give Ventura what proved to be the winning margin.

On the ensuing kickoff, Bausley made a fine return, giving the Monarchs the ball at the Ventura 44. Behind Watkins, Valley drove 44 yards in seven plays with Howard Howell diving the final yard for the touchdown.

Despite a fine defensive performance by Valley in the fourth quarter, which included three quarterback sacks on the same set of downs, Ventura was able to kill enough time to preserve the win.

The second-half excitement came with no warning following a first half of bumbling and fumbling by Valley.

In the first quarter, after Valley’s Willie Briggs recovered a Booker Jackson fumble, the Monarchs drove 75 yards on six plays, including a 43-yard dash by Bausley. On the next play, Bausley took a quick pitch from Davis and found a hole up the middle. Unfortunately for Valley, two Ventura defensive backs found the same hole, hit Bausley, and watched the football roll forward and out of the end zone. Ventura took over on the 20.

Three plays later, Valley’s Jerry Foster intercepted Russ Widerburg, giving the Monarchs the ball on their own 44. On the next play, another Valley nightmare--Howell fumbled and Ventura recovered.

Widerburg led the Pirates to the Valley 14 on seven plays. From there, Widerburg hit receiver Frank Madrid and Madrid fell out of bounds at the one-yard line. On the next play Carl Hughes dove over right tackle for the first touchdown of the game. Fowler was good on the conversion and Ventura led, 7-0, with 6:45 left in the first half.

Valley was forced to punt on its next possession and Ventura returned to ball to the Monarch 44. Widerburg hit Hugh Heath, formerly of Camarillo High, for a 20-yard gain. Five plays later, Fowler connected on a 16-yard field goal for a 10-0 Ventura lead at the half.