Foster Thrives in Dual Role for Thousand Oaks

Chris Foster’s likeness will never grace the top of a trophy. He’s not the model type.

Foster will never have a catchy nickname. Golden Boy he’s not. Nor Flash. Nor Sweetness.

Foster is known, simply, as Mongo.

And to watch Foster toil in the middle of Thousand Oaks High’s defense, he is every bit a Mongo. And more.

In a nonleague game Thursday night against San Marcos, Mongo also emerged as a punishing fullback, gaining 78 yards to lead Thousand Oaks to a 27-0 victory at Thousand Oaks High.

As it turns out Foster, at 5-10, 210 pounds, is a running back with a defensive tackle’s body and mind-set.

“I wanted to run the ball last year,” he said. “It was my dream.”

But Foster was already a dream defensively, as he was again against San Marcos. The senior led a defense that held the Royals to 35 yards in total offense.

“He’s so valuable to the defense,” Thousand Oaks Coach Bob Richards said, “we didn’t want him carrying the ball 25 times.

“Chris Foster, when he’s hooked up, is an excellent football player.”

Foster needed only 13 carries as nine other Lancers took turns in the backfield. Thousand Oaks buried San Marcos with 235 yards on the ground. The Lancers were clearly dominant on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

“If you don’t have offensive linemen that really want to get after it, then you’re not going to have a good football team,” Richards said.

The Lancer linemen were after it Thursday, but it remains to be seen just how strong they are. San Marcos, after all, was 3-7 last season and had no returning starters.

“We expected them to be a little bigger and more physical than us,” San Marcos Coach Satini Puailoa said of Thousand Oaks. “Our guys were respectable.”

Thousand Oaks flexed its muscles early.

On their second possession, the Lancers drove 59 yards in six plays for their first touchdown. Steve Rudisill finished it off with a 31-yard jaunt off right tackle with 4:25 left in the first quarter.

Foster did much of the set-up work, rushing four times for 25 yards.

On its next possession, Thousand Oaks again relied on its ground game, this time driving 55 yards in eight plays for a touchdown. After seven rushing plays, Scott Peterson sprinted right and threw 11 yards to Scott Barkman for the score. The point-after attempt was wide right and the Lancers led, 13-0, 1:32 into the second quarter.

The vaunted Thousand Oaks defense did what was expected: It gave up 12 total yards in the first half and sacked San Marcos quarterback Khoa Nguyen three times for 20 yards in losses.

Three times in the first half the Royals had possession inside the Lancers’ 30-yard line, but each time were thwarted--once on a sack by Dave Acosta that took them out of field-goal range, once on a penalty and another on a missed 25-yard field goal try.

Acosta’s sack came four plays after Erubey Nava had intercepted Peterson’s first varsity pass and returned it 19 yards to the Lancer 31. In all, Thousand Oaks’ defense registered five sacks.

Greg Buchanan scored from three yards, behind a clearing block by Foster, one minute into the fourth quarter. The two-point conversion gave the Lancers a 21-0 advantage. Slightly more than five minutes later, Acosta ran three yards for the 27-0 final score.

Through the scoring and the emergence on Foster as a tough, hard back, the Thousand Oaks defense lived up to its preseason hype.

“There is no pressure,” Acosta said. “All the hard work we do in practice pays off. We’re out there as a team. Not just defense, but offense, too.”

Just as well. Guys like Mongo aren’t glamour boys, anyway.