Trade Secrets Take Back Seat on Long Drive

Mike Anger and John Gonzalez will meet this morning for their long drive to UC Irvine, but conversation will be curtailed. No secrets will be shared.

Anger, Camarillo’s top receiver, and Gonzalez, Simi Valley’s best all-around player, are longtime club soccer teammates. They play for the Cerritos Brigade on weekends in the fall, and car pool to practice and games.

Their motors will be running this Friday night as well when Camarillo faces Simi Valley in a Marmonte League football game. Gonzalez, a cornerback-wide receiver-punter-kicker-kick returner, will cover Anger, who leads the league with 43 receptions for 601 yards and seven touchdowns.

“It takes more than an hour to get to Irvine and we usually just talk about football,” Anger said. “Last week, we had played Newbury Park and Simi was about to play them, so we exchanged everything we knew about them.”

Gonzalez’s first instinct is to take it easy on Anger. But, on second thought. . . .

“He’s my soccer teammate and I don’t want him to get hurt,” he said. “Of course, I can’t let him beat me for a touchdown. Then I’d be angry.”

Anger frequently angers defenders. After not playing football as a sophomore, he was convinced to play by quarterback Joe Borchard last season and soon developed into a consistent threat.

In Camarillo’s 41-35 victory over Agoura on Friday night, in which the Scorpions overcame a 35-7 third-quarter deficit, Anger had three touchdowns among his nine catches for 136 yards. A week earlier, he had 11 catches for 138 yards in a 27-20 upset of Newbury Park.

Bragging rights were Gonzalez’s for the first few weeks of the season when Simi Valley opened 2-1 and Camarillo was 1-2. Lately, however, he has been frustrated.

In the Pioneers’ 40-21 loss to Newbury Park on Friday, Gonzalez dashed 54 yards for a touchdown on a counter play in the first quarter. He also caught a 20-yard touchdown pass later on, but he was puzzled that his coaches never called the counter again.

“We ran the play that’s supposed to set it up three times and I kept waiting for the counter, but it never came,” he said.

Gonzalez is Simi Valley’s leading scorer with 41 points on four touchdowns, two field goals and 11 extra points. Anger is Camarillo’s leading scorer with 42 points.

So who scores the most in soccer?

Neither. Anger plays fullback, a defensive position, and Gonzalez, as he does in football, is a utility player.

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Howard’s an end: Jim Benkert’s words must have been music to Larry Howard’s ears:

“We’re going to bring Kevin along slowly.”

Larry, Kevin Howard’s father and a jazz musician, voiced concern during the summer that his multitalented son was being pulled in too many directions. Kevin’s schoolwork suffered last year when he played varsity basketball at Crespi, and it improved only marginally when he transferred to Westlake and played varsity baseball.

As a freshman.

Now, fresh off helping the Thousand Oaks Little League 15-year-old team win the national championship in August, Howard is playing junior varsity football. He is dominant, having scored 11 touchdowns as a wide receiver and kick returner.

But Benkert, Westlake’s coach, has resisted promoting Howard to his top-ranked Warrior varsity.

“He could play varsity, anybody can see that,” Benkert said. “But there are other considerations. From the standpoint of developing our program, and from the standpoint of him learning the game without undue pressure, he is fine where he is.”

Westlake has strong receivers in Joey Cuppari and Elliot Kane. And Howard is establishing a bond with junior varsity quarterback Michael Field, whose father, Bobby Field, is assistant head coach at UCLA.

The Warrior program is strong from top to bottom: The varsity is 5-0, the junior varsity is 4-1 and the freshmen are 5-0.

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Sidelined: Nordhoff running back Russell Farrar will miss one to three weeks after suffering a sprained ankle Friday night against Bishop Diego.

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Easy money: “Lancerpalooza,” the comedy and musical performance headlined by Drew Carey and Bruce Baum last Sunday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, raised about $13,000 for Thousand Oaks High’s athletic programs, according to organizer Lenny Ciufo.

The football program alone made about $6,600.

About half of the 1,800 seats were filled, so even more funds could have been raised. Next year, they’ll try again, perhaps with comedian Michael Richards of “Seinfeld” on the bill. Richards is a Thousand Oaks High graduate.

“Some of the sports programs got behind it more than others,” Ciufo said. “This has the potential to make $30,000 or so.”

Around Thousand Oaks, anybody who failed to support “Lancerpalooza” should refrain from complaining about the rigors of fund-raising or the cost of playing a sport.