The West Ranch Wildcats struggled on both sides of the ball, leading to a 30-7 loss to host Thousand Oaks on Friday night.
The offense couldn’t stay on the field and the defense couldn’t get the Lancers off it, giving up long drives and big plays in the process. The Lancers came away with points on all but two of their possessions and held the Wildcats scoreless until five seconds remaining in the game.
The Wildcats (2-2) went three-and-out on their first drive, followed by a 15-play, 87-yard march down the field by the Lancers led by a trio of juniors: quarterback Jackson Taylor, receiver Hayden Vercher and running back Justin Lewis.
The three led the Lancers down to the 3-yard line, where Taylor hit Vercher on a slant route for the touchdown on fourth and goal. Vercher was Thousand Oaks’ big-play threat, seemingly always open when the Lancers needed a play. He finished the game with eight catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns.
“It’s just the way it goes sometimes,” said West Ranch head coach Chris Varner. “We’ve been on the other side of these and we just have to get better have some guys step up and get ready for league.”
A West Ranch punt on its next drive led to another long Lancers drive, highlighted by a 23-yard connection from Taylor to Vercher that set Thousand Oaks up at the 3-yard line, where Lewis ran it in to extend the lead to 14-0.
Things escalated from there as the Lancers put the game away early with its next sequence. Thousand Oaks hit a 25-yard field goal on its next possession, intercepted West Ranch quarterback Cooper Jackson’s pass and immediately went back to the Taylor/Vercher connection, this time a 32-yard touchdown pass up the left sideline to extend the lead to 24-0 going into the half.
“We’ll focus on the positives. We did some good things,” said Varner. “The bye week will certainly help us going into league. The kids fought hard the whole game. What else can you ask?”
The Lancers (3-1) played more conservatively in the second half, moving away from their normal shotgun offense to an under-center, I-formation to run the ball. They hit two more field goals, 33 and 34 yards, respectively, to go up 30-0 before the Wildcats finally got in the end zone.
With just minutes to play, West Ranch moved the ball to the Lancers’ 3-yard line. A handoff to Nicholas De Leon was fumbled, but recovered by Michael Powell for the touchdown. The score avoids the Wildcats’ first shutout since their 45-0 loss on Nov. 1, 2019, to Valencia.
“It’s nice to have something on the board at the end,” said Varner. “That’s a heck of a staff over there. Class act all the way.”
The Wildcats will look to regroup on their bye week and open up Foothill League play on Sept. 27 against Hart.
