Contos Carries Westlake Past St. Joseph

Jonathan Contos is a 16-year-old senior tailback from Westlake Village Westlake High who has never received a grade other than A in three years of high school.

With 4.4-second speed in the 40-yard dash and a 1470 SAT score, it’s no wonder the likes of Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Brown want him to attend their schools. But they’ll have to compete with many others if Contos performs the way he did in Westlake’s season football opener Friday night.

Barely working up a sweat and only playing in the first half, Contos rushed for 91 yards in nine carries and scored two touchdowns to help Westlake overwhelm Santa Maria St. Joseph, 49-0, at Santa Maria.

Westlake looked in midseason form. St. Joseph looked as if it needed two more weeks of tackling drills in practice. Westlake’s fourth-string running backs gained yardage with ease by the fourth quarter when a running clock was used.

Besides Contos, the Warriors featured Kasey O’Brien, who scored three touchdowns with runs of 30, 10 and five yards. Quarterback Todd Feiereisen completed eight of 11 passes for 153 yards and one touchdown. He also rushed for 60 yards in four carries. On defense, cornerback Chris Cannon had two interceptions and lineman Brett Dashe recorded two sacks.

A year ago, Westlake won the Marmonte League championship, went 10-2 and was upset in the Southern Section Division IV quarterfinals. The Warriors lost their most valuable player, receiver-defensive back Ryan Foltz, who signed with California. But the defense was effective Friday in shutting down St. Joseph quarterback Dustin Kelly, who passed for 3,017 yards last season. Kelly was 14 of 29 for 161 yards.

Westlake’s offense put together 10 consecutive plays in the second quarter of 10 yards or longer. O’Brien, in his only two carries of the first half, broke off touchdown runs of 30 and 10 yards behind devastating blocks by tight end Matt Silver. The first half was halted with 1:06 left when a power outage blacked out a bank of lights for 15 minutes. The teams went to the locker room for halftime, came back when the lights went back on and played the final 1:06 of the second quarter, plus the final two quarters.