Bantam Blue: Welcome
Game Summary
September 26th,2009
Agoura/Oak ParkEagles Bantam Blue vs. Castaic White
Location: CastaicMiddle School
In a heat that took your breath away, the Agoura/Oak ParkEagles, Bantam Blue managed to hold on against the Castaic Cougars in a game thatfeatured big plays by both teams on both sides of the ball.
Agoura got on the board first with an eight yard touchdownrun in the 1st quarter by Spencer Lin. The Cougars answered back with a TD of their own andconverted the 2 point try to make it 8-6, which is where the game stayed untilhalftime. Each side had theiropportunities but the defense would always come up with the play to end thedrive just short.
In the 2nd half, Agoura got back to what had beenworking well, running between the tackles. With Joe Spence at Fullback, Agoura marched downfield ontheir first possession in increments of 4 or 5 yards at a time. The drive was impressive and ended witha 4 yard TD pass from Nathaniel Davis to Sebastian Seaman. Again the 2 point conversion failed,but the Eagles had the lead at 12 to 8. Now it was up to the defense.
And they didn’t disappoint. Trent Haines, playing despite an injured knee, made a coupleof crucial plays from his middle linebacker spot, and Nick Reeder also had anice open field tackle on a Castaic play that showed promise. Castaic punted it away and when thedust cleared, the Eagles knew one more score would probably put the game away.
And it didn’t take long. On a naked bootleg, Davis got around the left corner and hewas off to the races. 56 yardslater, Agoura had their 2 score lead and now it was in the hands of thedefense.
Which didn’t go as planned. A decent drive ended up with Castaic getting loose for a 36yard TD. The game was back to onescore at 18-14.
Agoura recovered the onside kick (time was ticking low) andwere moving the ball. On 4thand a foot, the discussion centered on what to do. A play was called to go for it, but a Delay of Game penaltywas called and we were set back 5. To punt or not to punt? That is the question. Idecided to go for it and Davis not only got the 1st down, but endedup in the end zone. The bad breakfor us that we were called for holding and the play was brought back. This put me in punt mode and we did,with Castaic 63 yards away and about 56 seconds left.
The Cougars ended up in 4th and 8 and Ross ‘Bryanmade a great play, slicing up inside the blockers and putting a solid hit onthe runner well short of the 1st down marker. The game ended on this play and thefinal score was Agoura/Oak Park Eagles 18, Castaic 14.
It was a well played game considering the heat and bothteams played to the last play. I’mproud of both teams and they gave us all we could handle, but we aren’t givingthe win back and hope to build from what we saw against Castaic.
Game Summary
September 12th,2009
Ventura BlackPackers vs. Agoura/Oak Park Eagles Bantam Blue
Location: AgouraHigh School
The Agoura/Oak Park Eagles opened the 2009 season with asolid win over the Ventura Black Panthers, 22-0. The game was played at a slow pace, the Eagles only havingthe ball 4 times and managing 3 scores while a rock solid defense held theblack clad opponents to 7 yards of total offense.Agoura scored in the 1st quarter on a bootleg byNathaniel Davis that covered 35 yards. Davis runs with such fluid motion that when he turns the jets on hesimply explodes by the defenders. The Eagles got the ball back in the 2nd quarterand took 11 plays to cover 48 yards for another score. The bulk of the damage was done bySpencer Lin and Davis, but really the offensive line played exceptionally onthis drive and when the Eagles were stuck down on the goal line, it was thecenter Jake Keller and the guards of Grant Shaver and Zach Bartlett that wipedout the interior defense and allowed Joey Spence to push across the goal stripefor another 6 points. Linconverted the two point attempt and now the lead was 14-0 as the half ended.
14-0 seemed close, but not the way the Eagle defense wasplaying. Eagle linebackers weremaking bone rattling tackles from sideline to sideline and Ventura didn’t knowwhat was better, running up the middle into the waiting arms of Trent Haines orto test the corners where Nick Reeder made several good open field tackles. Inthe end, Ventura managed 2 first downs for the whole game, a strong testamentto the aggressive team concept the coaches have been preaching all pre-seasonlong.In the 3rd quarter, with Tyler Uberstine takingover at quarterback, the Eagle offense marched down the field with another 11play drive, the highlight being a halfback option pass from Davis to Lin on 4thand long that was stopped on the 1 yard line. Trent Haines broke through for the final 3 feet and anotherTD and Davis converted the 2 point try on a sweep play that was blocked beautifullyby the entire right side of the line and the wide receiver. Davis ended up with 124 yards on 11carries and the offensive line gave him plenty of room to maneuver throughoutthe game. The defense carried therest of the game, stuffing most plays in the backfield and the final score was22-0. A great way to begin theseason, especially at home and the Bantam Blue team left the field proud ofthemselves and anxious for the week to pass so they could get back out therefor Game 2 against Ventura Orange.
