THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Newbury Park Gears for Rival

Nearly a decade has passed since Newbury Park won a Marmonte League title. And, even in 1981, the Panthers could not interrupt the aura of Thousand Oaks, the neighborhood bully down the freeway.

In the final regular-season game that year, Newbury Park soundly defeated the Lancers and for its effort shared the championship--with Thousand Oaks. Since then, Thousand Oaks has won or shared three more titles and is on the verge of its fifth of the decade.

Newbury Park, in the meantime, made the playoffs in each of the first seven years of the ‘80s before its recent dry spell of two seasons.

But there has been just one league championship.

Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park will meet again Thursday night with Marmonte honors in the balance. The Lancers are 8-0-1, 5-0 in league play. Newbury Park is 6-1-2, 4-0-1.

George Hurley, in his first year as Newbury Park head coach but his 18th as part of the program, figures now is as good a time as any to shake up the Lancers and shed Newbury Park’s image as the “ugly stepsister.”

“Our kids got kind of tired reading about how good their defense is,” said Hurley, who has a pretty good one himself. “(My players) want to prove there are . . . other schools in this valley.

“And they deserve to play in this championship game.”

Add Marmonte: Speaking of schools in the Conejo Valley, Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks are joined by Westlake in the Division II playoffs--the Warriors’ first playoff appearance since 1982.

First-year Coach Jim Benkert was able to rally the Warriors despite an 0-3 start in which the defense yielded 116 points. Westlake won three of its next six games and tied another, primarily because the defense came together in a 7-3 league-opening win over Camarillo.

“I think that was the turning point,” Benkert said. “I’ve been saying all along that this is a playoff-caliber team. Now it’s a sense of accomplishment.”

The Wolves survive: Van Nuys has quietly slipped into prime playoff contention in the Mid-Valley League with its 17-0 win over Birmingham on Friday. The Wolves are alone in second place with a 3-2 conference record. The top two teams are guaranteed playoff berths.

The ‘X’ factor in Van Nuys’ season has been its defense: The Wolves have posted three shutout in five conference games.

Coach Kenji Mochizuki credits lineman Jose Martinez and linebacker Edvin Babayovo with anchoring the stalwart crew.

With a win over Monroe on Friday, Van Nuys will assure itself of postseason action.

Forfeits: Hoover was forced to forfeit victories over South Pasadena and Monrovia for allowing 14-year-old Chris Kalaleh to play. Southern Section rules stipulate that a player must be 15 to play varsity football.

Kalaleh, a sophomore who turns 15 in December, caught 12 passes for 104 yards in seven games.

Harvard’s program: Scholastic Sports America, an ESPN program that focuses on high school athletics, will be filming the Harvard water polo team’s first-round playoff match today against Newbury Park, Coach Rich Corso said.

Staff writers Tim Brown, Sam Farmer and Brian Murphy contributed to this notebook.