Ventura’s Dailey Hurts Westlake All Night Long

Hoping to see something special from his team Thursday night against Ventura High, Westlake Coach George Contreras watched the game from the top of the press box at Thousand Oaks High.

What he witnessed was a Dailey occurrence.

Ventura’s Steve Dailey.

The 6-1, 210-pound fullback, linebacker and placekicker scored a touchdown, kicked two extra points and a 23-yard field goal and intercepted a pass as Ventura defeated Westlake, 23-13.

The Cougars, ranked fifth in the Coastal Conference poll, are 3-0, all against Marmonte League teams. Ventura also defeated Simi Valley and Newbury Park. Westlake is 1-2.

Dailey, running behind an offensive line that dwarfed the Westlake defense, carried seven times for 107 yards.

“He’s a good, hard-running fullback,” Contreras said after climbing down from his perch. “We knew he was capable of that.”

After holding Westlake to minus-6 yards on the Warriors’ first possession, Ventura opened the scoring when Dailey burst through the middle of the Westlake defense and ran 50 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown five minutes into the game. Ventura’s drive consisted of an incomplete pass and Dailey’s run.

Westlake evened the score late in the first quarter when quarterback Bob Grandpre, scrambling left, threw across his body to Garret Messner for a six-yard touchdown. The key play in the drive was Todd Thompson’s 30-yard halfback option pass to Ryan Behrens on a second-and-7 play that took Westlake to the Cougars’ 35-yard line.

Ventura led at halftime, 14-7, on quarterback Jason Matheny’s 19-yard pass to David Eggert. The Cougars went 80 yards on 13 plays.

Running back Tim Albrent scored with nine seconds left in the third quarter to put Ventura ahead, 20-7. Dailey’s field goal four minutes later, after his interception stopped a Westlake drive, completed the Cougars’ scoring.

“Obviously, the big play was the thing that hurt us,” Contreras said. “We knew they’d be a real tough ball team and they played physical.”

Noel Baker led the Warriors with 66 yards on 16 carries. He scored late in the game on a six-yard dive after the Cougars had a snap sail over the head of the punter, Albrent.

Grandpre, on the run by design most of the game, was 8 of 19 passing for 84 yards.