Coaching for Pizza: End of the NPHS JV Season, an 8-Man C.I.F. American Football Game, a French Boulangerie in Ventura and the American Civil War

A very action packed weekend began at 7:00 p.m. Thursday with the Marmonte League's Fifth Place playoff game.

Newbury Park Panthers

5-3-1, 2-2 Marmonte League East

Agoura Chargers

3-6, 2-2 Marmonte League West

As you may recall, the Panthers are part of the ten school Marmonte League that has been divided into two five-team divisions, the Marmonte League East and the Marmonte League West.

This weekend was the last one of the 2013 high school regular season leading into next week's playoffs that in six weeks will end in crowning California state bowl champions.

What the Marmonte League does this tenth game at the Varsity, JV and Freshman levels is match up the two #1 squads against each other to decide the league crown. Similarly, the two #2s, two #3s, etc. also square off.

Since we finished in third place in the ML East, we were scheduled to take on the ML West's #3 squad in a re-match at Agoura H.S.

Our two squads met in a non-league match back in early September in the season's third game played at Agoura as well. In that contest we eked out a very hard fought 22-13 victory. The question would be, which of us had improved the most over the course of the past two months.

Some of the following pictures are blurred because neither Laurie or I have learned how to shoot action shots at night.

Tackling Warm-Up with our LBs

OL Warm-Ups

Connor Williams' torn jersey

Connor had to be cut out of his jersey two weeks ago after suffering a season ending concussion in the St. Bonaventure game.

Mike Contreras

Dashing Defensive Coordinator

Speedy Shane Sipes

Shane got the ball rolling with a great 42 yard kickoff return on the game's first play.

Shane Sipes

Same Play, Mr. Koh's Camera

Larry Koh is the father of one of our players, lineman Kyle Koh, and has been taking great photos all season long. Thank you, Larry.

Sipes Kickoff Return got us into

Agoura Territory

Workhorse RB Jonas Mello

On this night he would rumble for 190 yards on 26 carries and score two rushing TDs.

But that was not all that he would contribute to the cause . . .

Student Body Left

This "Old School" play was huge tonight.

Mello Loose in the Secondary

Again.

Jonas would finish the season with 1,176 rushing yards on 195 carries. He accomplished this in only eight games having missed our first Agoura game and our week #2 loss (12-18) to the eventual ML West champion Thousand Oaks Lancers due to a thigh injury.

QB Erich Wuesthoff

He picked a fine night to have his best outing of the campaign! Erich completed 13 of his 22 passes (59.1%) for 183 yards and 3 TDs.

At the end of the First Quarter, we were tied 7-7.

Kyle Popok caught this 12 yard

pass from Erich Wuesthoff

How many times is this going to happen?

Jonas Mello had big runs of 53, 37 and 36 yards on the night.

Mello also kicked 5 PATs and . . .

Kicked Off Seven Times

This Agoura RB is a STUD!

He hurt us in the first Agoura game and he showed no signs of weariness this time either.

GOODNESS!

Dagan Sciamanna tackled him!!!

Aaron Chapman had a great

kickoff return nullified by a WWE move

Chapman ran well tonight

FS Shane Sipes on the tackle . . .

Sipes again on a grab!

Will he score?

According to Laurie AND the Ref . . .

YES!!!

At the half, the Panthers owned a 21-10 advantage.

Interception by Jack Jensen,

his third of the season

Erich Wuesthoff throwing the old . . .

Hook and . . .

Luke Wuesthoff caught his brother's pass 12 yards upfield and promptly . . .

Lateral!

Actually, Luke more volleyballed than lateraled the ball to Jonas Mello slipping out of the backfield. Mello rumbled the final 16 yards and voilà, a 28 yard TD passing play!

NPHS Principal Athol Wong signals TD

After Three Quarters it was NP ahead 35-17.

Our Kickoff Team was AWESOME!

We kicked off seven times with, surprisingly no ball reaching the end zone. Still, Agoura's drives after we kicked off started, in order, at the 21, 18, 31 (squib kick), 19, 28, 25 and 25 yard lines. What a great job by this group!

Jerrin Hazard, Matt Perez and Yaser Khokar

combining on a Kickoff tackle

Defense Swarming

Luke Wuesthoff bobbling and . . .

Reeling in a 20 yard reception

Sweep Pass

Jonas Mello to Luke Wuesthoff

Agoura had scored to cut our lead down to 35-24. Mello completed his only pass of the season to Luke for a 46 yard TD play.

Mello thus scored 2 TDs rushing, 1 TD on a pass play, threw a TD pass and kicked 5 PATs.

Luke had his best offensive game of the season catching six passes for 118 yards and two TDs.

Shane Sipes returned this

Fourth Quarter Interception 14 yards

The Final Score was Panthers 41 - Chargers 24

We enjoyed our best offensive game of the campaign as we rolled up a total of 502 yards (273 rushing and 229 passing).

We finished the season with a 6-3-1 record while the Chargers were 3-7 in 2013.

A little background needs to be reviewed at this point.

In 2011, when our group was in the 8th grade playing Pop Warner football for the Newbury Park Steelers, they not only did not win a game, they failed to score a single point all season.

In 2012 as NPHS Freshmen, the team showed marked improvement in going 3-7 under the tutelage of our patient and fundamentals oriented Frosh coaching staff led by the legendary George Hurley and Kevin Koenig.

Thus, our 6-3-1 record really was a good one as our young men continue to improve on their American football odyssey.

But, the season was not quite over yet as the two coaching staffs agreed to play a "Fifth Quarter" to give the players who do not normally play, a chance on the field.

The Coaches were the Refs

Sam Ellison Interception

Each team got one 12-play series to strut their stuff.

Yaser Khokar and Daniel Milman

were ready on the DL!

Clay Velarde about to use his best

Barry Sanders spin move

Zach Mahon Rushing the Rock

No scoring in the Fifth Quarter but a lot of fun was had to be sure. As coaches, we were very happy to see all of these hard working players get on the field one last time.

Mike Contreras as a Fifth Quarter Ref

Last Hammer Award of the Season

QB Erich Wuesthoff was

the deserving winner this game

Mike giving a Special Spoon

to our team's self-proclaimed

"Water Boy" . . .

LB Troy Urquiza

Troy loves this Adam Sandler movie.

A satisfied looking Shane Sipes

Shane is a great all-around player, PERIOD.

Hats Up One Last Time!

The 2013 Newbury Park JV Panthers

This was a very good group to work with this season.

2013 NPHS JV Results

6-3-1, 2-2 Marmonte League East

Newbury Park 24 - Buena 21

Thousand Oaks 18 - Newbury Park 12

Newbury Park 22 - Agoura 13

Newbury Park 7 - Moorpark 7

Newbury Park 14 - Royal 12 *

Newbury Park 42 - Calabasas 6

Westlake 34 - Newbury Park 6 *

St. Bonaventure 20 - Newbury Park 12 *

Newbury Park 37 - Simi Valley 15 *

Newbury Park 41 - Agoura 24 **

* Marmonte League East Game

** Marmonte League Fifth Place Game

C.I.F.-Southern Section

Division I

8-Man Football Playoff Game

Desert Christian Academy Conquerors (6-3)

Thacher School Toads (5-3)

I had never seen an 8-man game so Saturday it was finally time to rectify this hole in my sports resume. Laurie and I were off to Ojai, California to see the Thacher Toads in action.

Beautiful Setting and a Simple Stadium

Thacher School was founded in 1889 and is an exclusive private school with a coed enrollment of 253 students. Desert Christian Academy is located in Bermuda Dunes and has 106 proud Conquerors in their coed student body.

These small man-power pools are the reason for the 8-man option. This form of American football is played on a smaller field that is 80 yards long and 40 yards wide as opposed to the 11-man field that is 100 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide.

The offense must have a minimum of five men on the line and no more than three in the backfield. Defenses align as needed.

No, a REALLY Nice Setting

Toads Tackling during Warm Ups

Rich Romine, Sports Writer
Ventura County Star

Rich has been writing about high school sports in our county for over 40 years. He was able to share a wealth of knowledge about the 8-man game with us before the main event.

The night before he worked another 8-man C.I.F. Division I playoff game that ended with Price sneaking by Hillcrest Christian 87-72!

Wait, you scored 72 points and got beat by more than two TDs???

Italian Football League action comes to California.

Desert Christian's Nate Frahmann

The hitting was hard and the passion was intense as these two squads battled in a defensive game.

Sacking the D.C. QB Hunter Hurja

The Imposing Thacher Toads Defense

NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!

D.C.'s Cade Burt is tackling the Toads' Momo Lewis, but this one would be called back.

#15 Toads WR Stuart Brown isolated
on D.C.'s #14 CB Kenny Gagnon

Reed Gulick-Stutz trying
to turn the corner

He made it!

Hole Closing Fast

#7 Momo Lewis is from nearby
New York City, New York

Gulick-Stutz being Hog-Tied

Everywhere you look . . . LEGS!

Brown with the catch for the Toads

#66 Tucker Bennett would score a
Defensive TD later in the game

He recovered a fumble in the end zone when a teammate jarred the ball loose from the D.C. QB, Hunter Hurja.

Trench Warfare 8-man Style

Coach Jeff Hooper in the Huddle

Jeff has his back to us in this photo. He has led the Toads into the C.I.F. playoffs in all 12 years of the programs existence.

Toads Jet Sweep

Interesting Crowd Scenes

Very casual crowd control to say the least. The stands were all only four rows higher than ground level and could hold, in total, upwards of 100 fans.

It was more of a picnic ground than a stadium in the traditional sense.

Getting their Toad Momo On!

Momo Lewis rushed for a game high 163 yards rushing and passed for another 73 yards.

Horses, Dogs and Football

WR Stuart Brown
breaking a tackle and . . .

. . . Going 65 yards for SIX!

In the end, the Thacher Toads prevailed 40-8 thanks to their stout defense.

Up next for the 6-3 Toads is another home game next Saturday against the high flying 9-0 Lucerne Valley Mustangs, coed enrollment 133.

Two words kept popping up in my mind while I watched the Desert Christian-Thacher game. One was "cute" and the other was "pure." The size of the majority of the players caused the first word to appear and the second word was brought about by the innocence of the contest. There were no snack bars, mega scoreboards, obnoxious fans or anything else that made this anything more than it should have been, a contest between two good high school teams.

It was a fun afternoon.

ON TO VENTURA!

We stopped in downtown Ventura on the way home from Ojai for dinner. It was then that I spied this sign on Main Street . . .

Oh Boy, I have a chance here!

Would the search for a good croissant and/or pain chocolate in America finally be over?

Bad Omen

This map drawn on the bakery's wall failed to point out Lyon, "The Gastronomic Capital of France." SAY WHAT???

I ordered both a croissant and a pain chocolate knowing full well that ordering these in the late afternoon might spell disaster since they should have been made in the morning.

I was right.

The quest continues.

MOORPARK CIVIL WAR

RE-ENACTMENT

For the 13th straight year, the Moorpark Rotary Club has hosted an American Civil War Re-Enactment Weekend with a total of five battles over the two days.

This year, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, all five scheduled battles would feature a part of that historic three day battle in Pennsylvania.