Thousand Oaks football dominates West Ranch

THOUSAND OAKS – The Thousand Oaks football team dominated West Ranch 30-7 Friday night and improved to 3-1 on the season.

Thousand Oaks was led from start to finish in Friday’s game jumping out to a 24-0 halftime lead. Jackson Taylor led the way offensively finishing the game 14 of 25 for 186 yards and two touchdown passes, which both came in the first half.

Hayden Vercher finished the game with seven catches for 124 yards and two touchdowns. Justin Lewis ran the ball 19 times for 64 yards, including a first-half touchdown.

“I think our performance was pretty good, I think we did a lot of good things and it’s cool to see this offense keep developing.” Taylor said.

Thousand Oaks came into the game facing the challenge of West Ranch’s high-powered run game led by running back Luke Deperno, who came into the game averaging 9 yards a carry. The defense held Deperno to 14 carries for 43 yards and forced West Ranch into long third down plays all game. West Ranch only had 71 passing yards in the game.

The Lancers defense was able to force turnovers on two straight possessions in the second quarter that set up a Thousand Oaks touchdown and field goal. The turnovers came from a Cory McEnroe strip sack that was recovered by Adam Soto and an interception by Luke Sullivan on the next West Ranch possession.

“We know they’re a run heavy team and we’re a run stopping defense so it was a perfect matchup for us,” Cory McEnroe said. “Thousand Oaks always takes pride in our defense and I think we have a great defense again this year and I’m just blessed to play with these guys.”

Thousand Oaks kicker Ryan Leff also had a nice night going three for three on field goals and making every PAT. Two of Leff’s three field goals came in the second half. West Ranch scored moments of the game on backup running back Nicolas De Leon’s 4-yard run.

“I thought we battled hard and didn’t quit. We played a very polished team tonight,” West Ranch coach Chris Varner said. “I thought defensively we gave them some fits at certain times and we’re just a young team in certain spots and this is the growing pains you go through with that.”

Thousand Oaks will take on Simi Valley next week at home. West Ranch fell to 3-2 and will have their bye next week and then start Foothill League play in a game against Hart.

Prior to the game, Thousand Oaks High School honored former football team captain and Marine Anthony Melia who was killed in action in Iraq while serving in 2007. The football team retired the number six in honor of Melia and also had several members of his family, friends and former teammates present for the pregame ceremony.

“It has been an emotional couple of days for us, it was a real blessing to be able to spend time with Anthony’s family last night,” Thousand Oaks coach Ben McEnroe said. “It was nice to learn more of their story and just get to know more about Anthony and the impact he had.”