THE HIGH SCHOOLS / STEVE HENSON : Thousand Oaks’ Bowen Finds Writers a Vowel Less Than Letter-Perfect

Leafing through some newspapers Saturday morning and seeing his name misspelled in most of them--again--might have made Cory Bowen wince.

Ouch! There’s that E again.

But he was already sore all over, having been tackled 21 times the night before by Canyon High’s vicious defense.

Bowen, Thousand Oaks’ junior tailback, gained 133 yards in Canyon’s 27-13 victory, impressing everyone from Cowboy defenders to rival coaches scouting the game.

But after browsing through the paper, Bowen mused that it is awfully tough for a guy to make a name for himself when almost everybody gets it wrong.

Including sportswriters. And his coach.

Somehow, an E has been wedged into his first name like a running back squeezing between guard and tackle. The Lancer program lists him as Corey, which is probably the reason three of the four newspapers that cover Thousand Oaks write his name that way.

“Everybody is always doing that,” Bowen said. “I have no idea how it started. It’s a little bothersome but it happens all the time.”

Bob Richards, the Thousand Oaks coach, noticed that newspapers were spelling Bowen’s first name differently. In an effort to clear it up Friday night, he took a reporter aside and said, “You know, his name is spelled C-O-R-E-Y.”

Richards might be excused: He’s a math teacher who knows Bowen best as No. 20, the player who has gained 313 yards in three games. Richards has no trouble counting.

What’s in a name, anyway? Not a lot, unless it’s yours that is continually being butchered.

The easy answer would have been for somebody--anybody--to ask Bowen how he spells his name. That’s right, actually talk to him. Then maybe the scribes could save their E’s for describing his running style, elusive and full of extra effort.

“No one has asked me yet,” he said.

Unraveled plot: What Cleveland needed in the fourth quarter Friday night against Fairfax was a director, a real Hollywood type with dark shades and gold chains, to dash onto the field, stop play and yell: Cut, cut , whadaya, whadaya , that ‘s not in the script!

Taking a page from the San Francisco 49ers’ Super Bowl playbook, the Cavaliers scripted their first 25 plays from scrimmage, detailing before the game the precise order in which signals would be called.

And for three quarters, they had a blockbuster in the making: Cleveland led, 7-0, after scoring on the game’s opening drive and held the lead heading into the final 12 minutes.

The ending was a real tear-jerker, however, leaving the performance with mixed reviews. Fairfax scored three touchdowns to win, 21-7.

“If we’d have played the whole game like we did the first series, we’d have blown them out,” said David Erhardt, Cleveland’s quarterback. “Everything was going according to plan, then I think some guys just got tired.”

Erhardt, playing in his first game as a Cavalier after transferring from Canoga Park, was not shy about panning his play. His fumble on an option play led to Fairfax’s winning touchdown. “I stepped up after the game and told the team we’re gonna run five miles on Monday,” Erhardt said. “But it was my fault as much as anybody’s.”

Flags: The 220 yards in penalties racked up by Locke on Friday night exceeded the National Football League record of 209 set by the Cleveland Browns against the Chicago Bears on Nov. 25, 1951.

Penalties are supposed to be fatal, yet Locke destroyed Verdugo Hills, 27-0, behind a defense that allowed only 12 yards.

Hurt so good: Newbury Park players streamed into Mel Hayashi’s office Saturday, getting balm from the team doctor. But the Panthers had no emotional wounds for a change, thanks to a convincing 17-0 victory over Buena on Friday night.

A week ago, all the sophisticated orthopedic gadgetry in Hayashi’s office couldn’t mend the mental anguish caused by Newbury Park’s heartbreaking, 21-20 loss to Ventura, a game that slipped through the Panthers’ fingers when Ventura scored on a 68-yard desperation pass on the game’s final play.

“We felt like we won but we didn’t,” said running back Dave Roberts as he fiercely pedaled away on a stationary bicycle. “People at school would ask if we won and I’d want to say yes, but I couldn’t.”

This week the answer will be resoundingly affirmative, and the victory proved an affirmation of Newbury Park’s spirit.

“We were robbed big time against Ventura and there was no way it was going to happen again,” quarterback Zack Sutton said while Hayashi worked on his sore right shoulder.

“It was in the back of everybody’s mind and we put out some extra effort.”

Forward progress: The recovery of talented Newbury Park tailback Walter Thomas, who underwent surgery on his left knee two weeks ago, is ahead of schedule. Hayashi said the chances of Thomas playing Thursday in Newbury Park’s Marmonte League opener against Thousand Oaks are 50-50.

“You’ve got to give him credit, he’s worked very hard,” Hayashi said. “On Thursday, I ran sprints against him and I beat him. One day later, he beat me running backwards while I was running forward.”

Buddy system: For second-year Newbury Park Coach George Hurley, familiarity breeds shutouts.

Under Hurley, the Panthers have twice blanked Buena--no small feat considering the Bulldogs’ reputation for high-powered offense.

Hurley and Buena Coach Rick Scott both served as Newbury Park assistants through most of the 1970s. They remain friends, although they don’t always see eye to eye.

“Rick and I worked together for a long time, and preparing for his team is like preparing for ourselves,” Hurley said. “He runs the same plays we do, they just throw the ball more.”

Scott isn’t quite ready to concede that Hurley knows him like the back of his playbook.

“We’re really a different type of team than they are,” Scott said. “I don’t do the same things I did when I was at Newbury Park.”

Who’s right? Hurley points to the scoreboard and rests his case.