Westlake Tops New Kids on Block, 36-28

Agoura High may be the new kids in the Marmonte League, but the Chargers sent a message to the rest of the league Thursday.

They aren’t going to run away from the bullies without a fight.

Agoura pushed Westlake around for most of the evening at Thousand Oaks High. And the wide-eyed Warriors (4-0) had to come up with two fourth-quarter touchdowns to fend off the Chargers, 36-28, in the league opener for both schools.

“They’re a very good football team,” Westlake Coach Jim Benkert said. “We were in a dogfight, and you have to give them all the credit.” But Westlake’s versatile offense proved to be too much for Agoura. Quarterback Todd Preston completed 12 of 16 passes for a season-high 220 yards and three touchdowns. Running back Reuben Allen carried 17 times for a season-high 189 yards and two touchdowns, including a 47-yard run with 2 minutes 50 seconds remaining that allowed Westlake to extend a 29-28 lead.

Agoura (3-1), which outgained Westlake in total yards, 458-414, had erased a 21-7 deficit with three unanswered touchdowns. The last, a 68-yard run by quarterback Sean Fitzgerald (11 carries for 123 yards), gave Agoura a 28-21 lead with 8:31 left.

But that’s when Allen, a 5-foot-8, 170-pound senior, began to accelerate. During Westlake’s ensuing drive, Allen carried four times for 54 yards, including a 20-yard scoring run with 6:50 left that pulled Westlake within one, 28-27. Preston ran in the conversion to give Westlake a 29-28 lead.

Agoura’s ensuing drive ended at Westlake’s 42-yard line when Fitzgerald’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete under a heavy rush.

“Our kids came up with some big plays when they had to,” Benkert said.

That was evident again two plays later, when Allen darted 47 yards for a score and Preston’s point-after extended Westlake’s lead to 36-28 with 2:50 left.

Agoura wasn’t finished, though, and a 26-yard pass from Sean Fitzgerald (11 for 26 for 167 yards) to his brother Pat put the Chargers on Westlake’s 41-yard line. But one play later Westlake’s James Gillespie intercepted Sean Fitzgerald’s pass with 49 seconds left.

That ended a respect-earning night for Agoura, which competed at the Division VII level in the Frontier League since it left the Marmonte League, which is in Divison II, in 1979.

“We felt we could play with them,” Agoura Coach Frank Greminger said. “They just had so many weapons. We couldn’t contain them all.

Westlake loaded and reloaded from the start, taking a 6-0 lead on the game’s opening drive. Allen carried four times for 48 yards and Preston hit Erik Holcomb (four receptions for 89 yards) for a 15-yard score with 8:45 left in the first quarter.

Agoura answered with a drive that lasted 6 1/2 minutes and resulted in a two-yard scoring run by Kurt Klotz (91 yards in 15 carries) on fourth down. Pat Fitzgerald’s conversion gave Agoura a 7-6 lead with 2:13 left in the first quarter.

Westlake, however, answered with two scores that took only seven plays and 3 1/2 minutes.

Preston’s fifth consecutive completion to start the game was a 54-yard touchdown to Holcomb, who sprinted past the Agoura secondary untouched. Allen’s conversion run gave Westlake a 14-7 lead with 11:12 left in the half.

On the first play of Westlake’s next drive, Seamus Gibbons (three catches for 98 yards) beat the Agoura secondary for a 77-yard scoring pass from Preston. Preston’s conversion gave Westlake a 21-7 lead with 7:11 left.

Agoura then drove to Westlake’s one-yard line, but Sean Fitzgerald fumbled and Westlake’s Binh Hoang recovered at the three-yard line with 37 seconds left in the first half.