The High Schools /Vince Kowalick : Transfer Kept Contreras on the Bus

Six years of frustration peaked for Westlake Coach George Contreras as he boarded the team bus after the Warriors’ 24-6 Marmonte League loss to Thousand Oaks on Friday night.

Westlake’s hopes of earning a playoff berth for the first time since 1982 had been all but shattered, thanks largely to the play of Thousand Oaks tailback Mike Lindsay, a junior transfer from Westlake.

Lindsay, who played on the Westlake sophomore team last season, rushed for 150 yards, including a 73-yard, game-clinching touchdown with 10 minutes to play.

Admittedly embarrassed after the game, the usually genial Contreras snapped at reporters who followed him onto the bus, ordering them off.

“I didn’t want to wait 10 minutes and talk to reporters. I just wanted to get us out of there,” Contreras said Saturday. “I don’t usually do that. But I’m a human being and if Greta Garbo wants to be alone sometimes, so do I.

“I didn’t want to say something out of anger. It’s just very frustrating to lose.”

Westlake (1-6 overall, 1-3 in league play) needs victories over Royal and Camarillo to have a 3-3 finish and a slim shot at the playoffs. Thousand Oaks (4-0) and Channel Islands (3-0) are almost assured of securing the league’s top 2 places. Camarillo (2-1) and Newbury Park (1-2), which has defeated Westlake, both have a better chance than Westlake for the third berth.

Add Westlake: Lindsay leads Thousand Oaks with 645 yards in 118 carries. Yet he said after Friday’s game that had he remained at Westlake he would not have made the starting lineup.

Contreras disputes that notion.

“He would have been a starter to begin with,” Contreras said. “We are not a deep program and he’s a good athlete. We need athletes.”

Grounded Eagles: Both Oak Park Coach Ron Veres and senior tailback Jason Stein shared the same interjection Saturday morning.

Ouch!

Stein, who entered Friday’s game against Carpinteria as the Valley’s third-leading rusher with 712 yards, was wincing in pain, his left leg immobilized.

Veres, whose team won its first 6 games, had to be wincing as he studied the film of the game, in which his team was immobilized. Defending Tri-Valley League champion Carpinteria inflicted a 24-0 bruise to the Eagles’ egos, spoiling Oak Park’s best start in school history.

Veres probably felt a little of Stein’s pain, too, since Oak Park (1-1) is likely to make little headway in the league without him.

Stein, who also plays defensive back, probably will miss 3 games because of a sprained left knee.

He suffered the injury while attempting a tackle midway through the second quarter.

Add pain: Once again, Canyon relentlessly clobbered Golden League rival Quartz Hill, smashing the Rebels, 44-0, Friday night and limiting them to 93 total yards.

Said Coach Harry Welch: “We caught them when they were down.”

Are the Rebels ever up for Canyon? The Cowboys trounced Quartz Hill, 33-0, last year and 33-0 in 1985. In 1986, Canyon won, 45-13. Canyon has recorded shutouts over Quartz Hill in 4 of the past 7 years, outscoring the Rebels, 253-48. Quartz Hill has not beaten Canyon since 1981.

Wounded Panther: Consistency has never been a trademark of Newbury Park distance runner Mike Esparza, but a physical problem, not a lack of mental toughness, was responsible for his dismal 13th-place finish against Thousand Oaks in a Marmonte League dual meet at Cal Lutheran on Thursday.

Esparza, the two-time defending league champion, strained his lower back in training 2 weeks ago and the injury has gotten progressively worse. “He just couldn’t run downhill on Thursday,” Coach Mike Stewart said.

Esparza’s poor performance came a week after he set a 3-mile course record of 14 minutes, 58 seconds at Peppertree Park in Newbury Park. “Things were going very well a week ago,” Stewart sighed. “Now I just don’t know.”

The injury forced Esparza to withdraw from the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational on Saturday, and the Panther senior is questionable for the Ventura County championships Friday at Moorpark College.