Quick Dominguez Outlasts Thousand Oaks, 49-33

The message on the marquee outside the Thousand Oaks High football field was tellingly appropriate.

It offered words of wisdom. And at least for the Lancers, words to live by.

It read, “The past is to be learned from, not lived in.”

But for Thousand Oaks, there was another lesson to be learned, one that served as a reminder of last season. gone by.

Thousand Oaks, which was defeated a year ago by a faster and quicker Lynwood team in the second round of the Southern Section playoffs, again fell prey to the same type of team Friday night.

Dominguez drilled the Lancers, 49-33, in a Division II quarterfinal playoff game at Thousand Oaks.

Et tu, 1991 team? Same site as last year’s defeat, same general results. Thousand Oaks (10-2) was unable to get a handle on Dominguez’s frenetic ground attack, which featured a no-huddle offense and more counters than at the world’s biggest diner.

“We haven’t really played anybody with that kind of speed,” said Thousand Oaks tailback Cory Bowen, who rushed for 105 yards in 18 carries. “Our offense was moving the ball pretty well, too, but we just couldn’t stop ‘em.”

The Lancer defense, long a hallmark of the team, surrendered 428 yards, 374 on the ground. Even the stadium went into numerical shock at the awesome statistics: One of the goal posts started tilting to the right in the game’s final moments.

Trailing, 34-18, at halftime, Thousand Oaks seemed to have the right idea in the third quarter when it embarked on a ball-control drive after fielding the kickoff. The Lancers drove from their 26-yard line to the Dominguez 19 in 18 plays, the last of which was a fourth-down pass by quarterback Ernie Foli that Jamal Nichols bobbled and dropped in the end zone with 5 minutes 7 seconds left in the quarter.

Though the Thousand Oaks defense held and the Lancers’ Quincy Jacobs (102 yards in 11 carries) scored on a 16-yard run with 1:18 left in the quarter to cut the deficit to 34-25, Thousand Oaks didn’t have enough time remaining to move any closer.

Dominguez (10-2) scored on its next two possessions to put the game on ice.

“They had a lot of speed and a lot of good backs,” Bowen said. “They moved the ball real well on offense.”

It was better than that. Dominguez ran its ground attack to near perfection, and two players bettered the 100-yard mark--Robert Jenkins (171 in 17 carries) and James Jackson (137 in 11).

Jenkins scored on two runs of eight yards, Jackson scored on jaunts of 64 and 41 yards and Tyrone Myles (53 yards in nine carries) scored on runs of one and 15 yards.

It didn’t seem destined to end that way, though.

Thousand Oaks jumped to a 6-0 lead in the first quarter on a five-yard run by Jacobs, who finished with three touchdown runs. But thereafter, the Lancers were playing catch-up, which isn’t exactly the forte of a ball-control team.

Dominguez scored on four consecutive possessions to take a 28-6 lead with 8:41 left in the first half.

The Dons showed they meant business on their first possession.

After three plays, Dominguez faced fourth and one at its 29. Thousand Oaks jumped offside to grant the Dons the first down. The drive ended with a fumble, but the tone had been set.

Thousand Oaks forced just one punt in the first half and the Lancer offense turned the ball over three times.