Thousand Oaks Streaks Into the Playoffs

Thousand Oaks Coach Mike Sanders could be correct when he says his Lancers “might be a team of destiny.”

After losing its first five games, the Lancers came full circle, clinching second place and a playoff berth with a 49-28 Marmonte League victory Thursday night at Newbury Park.

Thousand Oaks (5-5, 4-2) sprinted to a 21-0 lead and then scored on its first four possessions of the second half to pull away from the Panthers (3-7, 2-4), who were eliminated from playoff contention.

Tony Ferrera rushed for 113 yards and four touchdowns, Ben Olson passed for 332 yards and one touchdown, and Dave Anderson returned a punt 83 yards for a score for the Lancers, who are averaging 35.6 points during their winning streak.

Anderson finished with six receptions for 110 yards.

The offensive outburst was needed to overcome 426 yards passing by sophomore Ryan Lombardo of Newbury Park.

“The offensive line did a great job tonight,” Sanders said. “This is a great group of kids and it’s good to see hard work pay off.”

Olson said that once the Lancers won their first game, they weren’t going to look back.

“Once we learned to score and we got the great taste of victory, we didn’t want to give it up,” Olson said.

Ferrera rushed for touchdowns of six, one and nine yards to culminate the Lancers’ first three second-half possessions for a 42-21 lead.

Corey Mazza stifled a Panther scoring attempt with an interception near the goal-line early in the fourth quarter.

On the ensuing possession, Olson connected with Jesse Ainsworth for an 87-yard pass play to set up Brandon Lambert’s three-yard scoring run with 7:52 to play.

Despite the season-ending defeat, the Panthers received some impressive individual performances.

Marcus Crawford rushed 15 times for 72 yards, finishing the season with 1,039 yards rushing.

Lombardo completed 23 of 41 passes and had two touchdown passes.

Panther receivers Jabari James and Justin Giles each had eight receptions and one touchdown.