Thousand Oaks Shuts Out Newbury Park

Thousand Oaks High does not win championships with grace. Or with finesse. Or with gadgetry.

Thousand Oaks wins championships with force. It wins them with intimidation.

So it should come as no surprise that when Newbury Park trotted into Thousand Oaks on Thursday night with all those same characteristics, something--someone--would have to give. Eventually, the Panthers did.

Thousand Oaks, champion again, defeated Newbury Park, 21-0, to clinch its fifth Marmonte League title in 10 years.

Game, year, decade to the Lancers, who are 24-2-1 in their last 27 league games.

Thousand Oaks held Newbury Park, which had a chance to win its first league title since 1981, to 182 yards and just 50 after halftime. The Panthers, under a sea of green, fell to 6-2-2 overall, 4-1-1 in the league. They will enter the Division II playoffs as the league’s second-seeded team.

The Lancers (9-0-1, 6-0) shut out half of their regular season opponents en route to the division’s top ranking.

“There’s a reason why they’re No. 1 in CIF,” Newbury Park Coach George Hurley said. “They play. There’s going to have to be a damn good football team out there to beat them.”

On this night, Thousand Oaks not only commanded the lines of scrimmage, but quarterback Scott Peterson controlled the air space. The junior completed seven of 15 passes for 98 yards and a touchdown--downright pass-happy by Thousand Oaks standards.

“I knew we had a good offense,” Peterson said. “I knew we could pass. It was just a matter of showing them.”

Peterson ran 24 yards for a first-half touchdown and threw 12 yards to Jason Ybarra with 3:10 gone in the second half for a 14-0 lead.

Then, with 4:36 left in the third quarter, Jim Magallanes ran 62 yards on a reverse for a 21-0 lead. It was more than enough for a Thousand Oaks defense that grudgingly gives up less than 130 yards a game.

“We do the best we can and the shutouts happen,” linebacker Lance Martin said. “They fall into place.”

As do opponents.

The first half, true to form, had the defenses and punters carrying most of the burden.

Thousand Oaks gained 149 yards in total offense--71 on its only scoring drive of the half. In 10 plays, the Lancers moved from their 29-yard line to Newbury Park’s 24. Peterson, back to pass, scrambled out of trouble up the middle, cut to the left sideline and outran the Panthers’ secondary into the end zone.

Peterson completed all three of his pass attempts, including a 16-yarder to Magallanes on third and six at Newbury Park’s 30. A Thousand Oaks holding penalty on the next play pushed the Lancers back to the 24, setting up Peterson’s dash.

Ybarra’s point-after with 4:17 remaining in the half gave Thousand Oaks its 7-0 advantage.

The Lancers limited Newbury Park to 135 yards in first-half total offense--but 41 on one Walter Thomas run early in the second quarter and 49 on a Jai Johnston pass just before the half ended.

Ybarra, Thousand Oaks’ punter, kicked four times in the half. Brandt Pile, his Newbury Park counterpart, punted twice. The Panthers also turned the ball over on downs on one occasion.

Despite the regular-season success, the league title, all the shutouts, there is still some football to be played. Thousand Oaks, after all, will be the team to beat.

“We just have to keep playing,” Thousand Oaks Coach Bob Richards said. “Don’t look to the past, look to the future.”