Moorpark Leaves With Hardware

If winning a Southern Section football championship and qualifying for the Little League World Series are fair measures, Moorpark has officially come of age as a city where kids and sports are synonymous.

Moorpark High’s 28-6 victory over St. Monica on Saturday night marks the crowning achievement of Moorpark’s Generation X, as in Division X football.

Part of growing up means facing new challenges, and as surely as Moorpark’s 1996 Little League champions will begin high school next fall, the Musketeers must move up to the Division III Marmonte League.

“We close this chapter with a championship and go on to something else next year,” Coach Ron Wilford.

The title was won the same way Moorpark joined the Marmonte, with the Musketeers looking out for their best interests and storming anything in the way. Marmonte schools voted unanimously to dish off the Musketeers to the Channel League, but Moorpark administrators filed appeals until they got their way.

On the field, Moorpark proved equally relentless, especially on defense.

Defensive backs Mark Weaver, Art Garcia, Gary Stevenson and Kevin Sedik held St. Monica to 29 yards passing and linemen and linebackers Jaime Villa, Gilbert Gonzalez, David Oviedo, Shane Brogdon, Jeff DiNapoli, Gail Martin and Javier Veronica allowed only 82 yards rushing.

“That was the toughest defense we’ve gone against all season,” St. Monica tailback Nate Anderson said.

The vaunted St. Monica passing combination of quarterback Chris Griffin (26 touchdown passes) and James Dunn (74 receptions) that helped St. Monica score four or more touchdowns nine times was silenced.

Griffin completed eight of 27, had passes intercepted by Garcia and Stevenson, and misfired on his first eight passes while Moorpark built a 14-0 lead.

Dunn had three catches for 17 yards.

Moorpark (13-1) allowed 15 points in four playoff victories, including last week’s historic 33-0 victory over Carpinteria that ended a streak of 51 losses to the Warriors, but this was the most impressive defensive performance.

“I thought we could expose their secondary but they played very well,” St. Monica Coach Norm Lacy said. “When you fall behind a great defensive team like that, it’s tough to come back.”

When the Musketeers return to the field, it will be as a Division III team. But they said farewell to Division X from on high, as kings of the mild Frontier League and Division X champions.

“We shocked the world tonight,” Wilford told his team after they accepted the championship plaque in front of stands packed with cheering fans.

Today the world, tomorrow the Marmonte League.