Reeling in Bowen Proves Tough for Thousand Oaks’ Opponents

Cory Bowen hits the hole as if he were sprung from a cage. Legs pumping and head bobbing, he scoots through untouched by Hart High defenders.

He takes a stutter-step as a linebacker desperately clings to his right ankle. Bowen tugs him along like a father does a playful child.

A defensive end clutches to the back of his jersey. A defensive back soars in for the kill.

Bowen bounces off the crashing pads, spins and breaks free.

He is next seen 10 yards downfield, emerging from a pile of defenders who rise slowly, weary after chasing this 5-foot-8, 180-pound tailback.

Tackling Bowen, a senior at Thousand Oaks, is like bringing in that 12-pound bass.

He wriggles, he pulls, he fights.

“He has great instincts,” Thousand Oaks offensive coordinator Paul Gomes said. “He’ll look like he’s going down, then get another 10 yards, and I’m just standing there saying, ‘Oh my gosh, how’d he do it?’ ”

Bowen, who also plays right field for the baseball team, is in his third season of baffling tacklers. He’s like an old engine that keeps on running after the ignition has been turned off.

Last season, Bowen rushed for 1,257 yards and scored 11 touchdowns. Friday he carried 18 times for 200 yards, including a 45-yard touchdown with 44 seconds left that secured a 33-21 win over Hart. He has rushed 37 times for 385 yards this season.

Quiet and soft-spoken, Bowen seems too nice to play football with such ferocity. It’s almost as though he should rise after a 30-yard scamper, shrug his shoulders and apologize to the defense: “Sorry, guys, I don’t know what got into me.”

“He’s one of the most gentle kids we’ve ever had here,” said Gomes, who is in his sixth year as offensive coordinator. “He doesn’t get real wide-eyed, he just has this attitude of ‘OK, just gimme the play and let’s go.’ ”

And go. And go.

“I try to go as hard as I can every time,” Bowen said. “If I get the ball, I’m not going to let up. I’m going to keep my legs pumping and keep going.”

He shrugs off his accomplishments, preferring to talk about his offensive line. “I feel lucky to have a line like that.”

His favorite hole isn’t the gap between left tackle Paul Yerman (6-4, 236) and left guard Matt Hansen (6-2, 230). Nor is it the one between right tackle Eric Benson (6-2, 233) and right guard Tom Magallanes (6-0, 220).

Instead, Bowen, an avid fisherman, likes to hit the hole in Carthage, Tex., where he caught his biggest fish, an eight-pound bass.

Bowen once kept two bass in a tank at his home. “But I had to feed them goldfish, and that got too expensive,” he said.

During the season, Bowen busies himself running the football but occasionally he sneaks onto a private lake in Westlake Village.

“They have some big bass down there,” he said, then shows that Huck Finn grin. “But that’s because nobody is supposed to be fishing on it.”

Often, defenses are just fishing when Bowen is in the ballgame. Bowen’s final carry on Friday, the 45-yard touchdown, illustrated that.

“During the timeout, I went out there in the huddle and told them, ‘Look, we’ve run this play 100 times. I don’t want a first down, I want a touchdown,’ ” Gomes said. “I knew after Cory took his second step that it was going to be a touchdown.”

Canyon’s hard-hitting defense will next try to reel in Bowen.

“Canyon is always our toughest game of the year, and I really look forward to it,” Bowen said.

The Cowboys had better bring plenty of bait.