Cuppari Points the Way

Joey Cuppari, make your point.

After scoring 29 during the game, he made another one afterward.

“I’d say we’re a good football team,” he said. “You’d better come to play against us, because we do.”

Cuppari increased his season scoring total to 111 points by catching four touchdown passes and adding five extra-point kicks in the Warriors’ 35-17 victory over Thousand Oaks on Thursday night at Westlake.

It was Westlake’s first victory over the Lancers in its past 10 tries and will keep the Warriors (5-2, 4-0 in Marmonte League play) tied for first place with the winner of tonight’s game between Newbury Park and Agoura.

Cuppari scored on a 40-yard pass play in the first minute of the fourth quarter to give Westlake a 10-point lead and added the finishing touch on a 35-yard reception with five minutes to play.

The senior three-year starter, who leads the region with 52 catches, had six for 161 yards against an overmatched Lancer secondary. Cuppari has scored 17 touchdowns, 16 on passes.

Westlake sophomore Zac Wasserman completed 13 of 28 passes for 298 yards and five touchdowns, including one of 24 yards to tight end Mike Seidman that put Westlake ahead, 21-17, with 35 seconds left in the third quarter.

The touchdown was set up by David Hu’s sixth interception of the season, Westlake’s 21st.

“We reached down when we had to,” Westlake Coach Jim Benkert said.

Thousand Oaks (3-4, 2-2) took its only lead, 17-14, in the first minute of the third quarter on a 45-yard interception return by James Birdseye.

After falling behind, 14-0, on two touchdown catches by Cuppari in the first quarter, Thousand Oaks battled back with a 42-yard field goal by Jude Gronenthal and a long touchdown drive in the second quarter.

The Lancers went 62 yards in 14 plays and had no gain longer than nine yards, chewing seven minutes off the clock and scoring on a one-yard run by quarterback Scott Ange with 1:32 left in the half, pulling to within 14-10.

Westlake scored on its first offensive play on a long pass that Cuppari caught in stride and ran with for a 72-yard touchdown. The Warriors also scored on their second possession, marching 55 yards in nine plays, the final three on a catch by Cuppari.