Fall Notebook / Sean Waters : Porous Defense Spells End for Oxnard

Oxnard began the season as the co-favorite to win the Channel League, but instead finished tied for third and was voted out of the playoff picture.

How can a team that averaged more than 369 yards of total offense and nearly 27 points a game miss the playoffs?

Simple. Oxnard’s defense fell apart in the final 2 games. After allowing 113 points in the first 8 games, the Yellowjackets gave up 79 points in the last 2--losses to Santa Barbara and Buena.

“We were use to getting a two- or three-touchdown lead earlier in the game and it was easy to defend because the other team had to go for the big play,” Coach Jack Davis explained. “But we played the tougher teams at the end of the season and we weren’t at full strength.

“Johnel Turner is one of the keys to our defense and he wasn’t completely healthy.”

Turner’s sore shoulder limited his efficiency on defense, where he played linebacker, and hampered his passing at quarterback.

Turnovers also played a key in the season-finale against Buena.

Oxnard (6-3-1) had 5 turnovers, including 4 fumbles against the Bulldogs. The Yellowjackets had lost only 8 fumbles prior to the game. Still, Oxnard has 5 skill players back next year that accounted for 82% of its points and 92% of the total yardage.

Cookie monsters: First it was his mother’s chocolate chip cookies. Now, Buena Coach Rick Scott complains that his picture isn’t in the paper enough times.

But no matter what his motivation, Scott guided Buena to a picture-perfect 35-15 win over Oxnard and has Bulldogs fans eating cookie crumbs out of his hand.

“Jack Davis has had his picture in the paper six times,” Scott said, “and me once . . . not that I’m counting.”

But Buena fans are counting, Rick. Scott has won 8 games and lost only 2--the school’s best record since a 9-1 finish in 1973.

His league record of 5-2 is a reverse of last year’s 2-5 finish.

And to top it off, the Bulldogs, as second-place finishers, qualified for the Southern Section Division II playoffs. It will be their first appearance in the playoffs since a wild-card bid in 1981 and the first time they earned a spot outright since 1973.

A kick in the right direction: Santa Paula sophomore kicker Juan Carlos Rodriguez was going to forgo football this season until he received a preseason sales pitch from Santa Paula Coach Mike Tsoutsouvas. Rodriguez played for the junior varsity last season and didn’t get many opportunities to kick field goals.

“He felt he wasn’t ready to play varsity,” Tsoutsouvas said. “I told him we were going to be a good football team and we needed a kicker. We had to build up his confidence and nurture the guy until he could pull it off.”

Rodriguez, a member of last year’s Southern Section championship soccer team, kicked a 47-yard field goal in Santa Paula’s 10-3 victory over Agoura last week.

Catching up with another record: Chris Thomas of Ventura tied the school record for most receptions in a season, making 6 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown in a 41-27 loss to Santa Barbara.

Thomas has 35 catches for 766 yards. Ralph Wilson, now the receivers coach at Ventura, set the mark in 1974. Thomas set the school mark for most yards in a season the previous week.

Title drive: Moorpark College can clinch the Northern Division championship of the Western State Conference with a win over L. A. Southwest in its regular-season finale Saturday.

The Raiders, who dropped from fourth to 13th in the state in the JC Athletic Bureau poll, can also post their best record in school history with a win. Moorpark (8-1 overall, 7-1 in conference play) is coming off a 12-10 upset loss to Ventura College.

Southwest visits Moorpark on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Drive for .500: Ventura needs a victory against Glendale in its season finale Saturday to finish better than .500 for the year.

Jose Reveles kicked a 28-yard field goal with 2 seconds left to give Ventura a 12-10 come-from-behind victory over Moorpark last Saturday. Freshman quarterback Todd Paffhausen, who completed 15 of 23 passes for 133 yards, scored Ventura’s only touchdown on a 1-yard run.

Ventura (5-4, 4-4 in conference play) rushed for 149 yards, 6 more than Moorpark, which led the WSC in rushing going into the game. Moorpark outgained Ventura, 328 yards to 282.

The Pirates, who have won 2 games in a row for only the second time this season, play host to Glendale on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Bowman or bust: Sophomore Eric Bowman scored 3 goals for Ventura, but the Pirates lost, 13-7, to Golden West last week in a second-round match of the Southern California regional water polo playoffs at Belmont Plaza pool in Long Beach.

Ventura, seeded seventh in the 12-team playoffs, defeated Mt. San Antonio College, 13-9, last week to advance to last Friday’s second-round match against No. 2 Golden West. The WSC-champion Pirates finished 20-10 overall, 8-2 in conference play.

Staff writer Ralph Nichols contributed to this notebook.