Agoura Gets Dose of Reality in 17-3 Loss

The Marmonte League is ready for Agoura High, but is Agoura ready for the Marmonte League?

Agoura will make the quantum leap from Southern Section Division VIII to Division II next season, joining the Marmonte League, but based on Friday night’s performance, Coach Frank Greminger’s gutty little Chargers are hardly ready for the big time.

Agoura was swallowed up by a wild pack of hungry Panthers from Newbury Park in a nonleague opener, dropping a 17-3 decision.

Newbury Park, which finished third in the Marmonte League last year, made Agoura look more like a Pop Warner club than a high school team, using its size advantage to wear the Chargers down in the second half.

“We tried to keep them off balance with some misdirection,” Greminger said. “We’re not big enough to go right at them.”

The tactic worked well enough for a half. Agoura used a variety of counter plays and rollouts to keep the aggressive Panthers at bay in the first half, running 35 plays to Newbury Park’s 21.

But the Chargers trailed at halftime, 7-3.

Newbury Park junior tailback Walter Thomas, who didn’t carry the ball in the first half, broke loose for 57 yards in eight carries in the second half. The 5-6, 145-pound back scored the Panthers’ only second-half touchdown on a 10-yard scamper with 4:52 to play.

The Panthers scored first and were never headed.

Quarterback Jai Johnston completed a 47-yard pass in the second period to Shane Gallimore, who had beaten Damion Smith down the sideline, putting the ball on the Agoura 16. Johnston scored from 13 yards two plays later, and Brad Hanson’s kick put Newbury Park ahead, 7-0, with 5:47 remaining in the half.

Johnston completed six of 10 passes in the first half for 104 yards and finished nine of 15 for 133 yards as Newbury Park stuck to the ground in the second half.

Johnston’s counterpart, Agoura’s Josh Smaler, had his problems meanwhile. Hounded by the Panther defensive line, Smaler was just eight of 23 for 82 yards and threw an interception in the first half.

The Chargers, aided by a 15-yard face-mask penalty, moved to the Newbury Park 12 late in the first half, and Todd Cribari booted a 28-yard field goal for Agoura’s only points.

Newbury Park countered with a 32-yard Hanson field goal in the third period, then put the game away on Thomas’ touchdown run.