Westlake gets big win over Hart, a perennial football powerhouse

The Westlake football team remained unbeaten at 3-0 when it earned a come-from-behind 25-24 over Hart High School in a game played at College of the Canyons last Thursday night.

The Warriors won the regionally televised game when senior quarterback Rudy Carpenter combined with senior wide receiver Michael Stuart on a 16-yard touchdown pass, then followed that with a 2-point conversion pass-play to senior running back Tahj Mowry.

Understandably, the Warriors players and coaches were thrilled.

"I can’t even describe how it feels," said Mowry. "Our whole team pulled through. I believed in our team and I knew we could do it, man, and we pulled through. We did not give up at all."

Senior linebacker Greg Newman had praise for Hart, as well as his Warrior team.

"That was the most intense game I’ve ever played. Hart was the best football team I think I ever faced," said Newman. "Both teams got after it. It came down to the last second of the game."

The Westlake touchdown that won the game came with 41 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. But Hart mounted a drive in the final seconds, only to see a desperate flurry fail when Marcus Maddocks, a senior defensive back, intercepted a pass in Westlake territory.

Hart hadn’t yet gotten into field goal range, however, before Maddocks made the decisive interception.

"Our age-group never beat this team," Stuart said. "We knew it was going to be really tough because they came in 0-2. It’s huge to go into the Marmonte League 3-0. We haven’t done that since I don’t even know when—and we have a lot of confidence now."

The quarterback said the Warriors were prepared for the 2-point conversion attempt. Tying wasn’t an option, he said.

"I think the whole team-consensus was we’d rather come out of here with a loss than a tie," said Carpenter. "Hart’s an unbelievable team. This was an awesome football game."

Like Stuart, who cramped up and missed portions of the game, Carpenter was a little banged up afterward. But he should be ready for tomorrow’s Marmonte League opener at home vs. Thousand Oaks.

"I’m ready for league," Carpenter said.

The Warrior coaches also were pleased with the win over Hart.

"They’re a great football team and they’re backs were against the wall. They had to win a game," said Westlake head coach Jim Benkert. "They put everything out on the field and so did we. We made some mistakes early and we got a little out of sync.

"But the kids rallied when they had to," Benkert added, noting that a defensive stand in which Hart was held to a third-quarter field goal kept Westlake in the game (17-10) instead of being down by 11 points.

"Our defensive stand to keep them to a field goal instead of a touchdown probably was the turning point of the game," said Benkert.

Quarterbacks’ coach Darryl Smith and defensive coordinator Mike Leibin assessed the game.

"Nobody quit on either side," said Smith. "Everybody made mistakes. Everybody made big plays. Hart’s always been a very well-coached football team."

Said Leibin, "There was absolutely no quit in any of our players. Each side of the ball made plays when they had to. (But) we’ve just got to make sure that we take this win with a grain of salt and learn from it because we made a lot of mistakes tonight."

Benkert and Carpenter agreed that there’s room for improvement.

"We got inside the 20-yard line about four times in the first half and didn’t score," said Carpenter. "And even in the second half, we shot ourselves in the foot. I threw two interceptions. Linemen went off sides. We held a little bit. But we always seem to come through when we need to."

Said Benkert, "We still need to get better. We’re still making mistakes. It (the win over Hart) means nothing unless we use this to go into our league season and play well. T.O. will bring a lot of the same things we saw tonight."