Oak Park uses ground attack, sound defense to shut out Fillmore

MORRIS COHEN/The Acorn GOING ALL THE WAY-Anthony Monteleone, center, of Oak Park makes his way past Nick Casas, left, and Justin Johnson, right, of Fillmore as he heads for the end zone and a touchdown during Friday night's game at Oak Park. The Eagles have lost only once in the Tri-Valley League football.

It was a dark and stormy Halloween night and the Eagles of Oak Park treated Fillmore like Michael Myers terrorized a babysitter in a secluded house. Behind the strong running of Anthony Monteleone in soggy field conditions, the Eagles improved to 7-1 (3-1) with their victory over Fillmore (1-7, 0-4) last Friday night, 49-0.

Oak Park quarterback Nolan McNair returned to the starting lineup after leaving the Bishop game two weeks ago due to a concussion. Unable to play in last week’s loss to Nordhoff, McNair ran the ball five times for 55 yards and a touchdown. He captained an Oak Park offense that gained 302 yards on the ground as weather conditions prohibited both teams from mustering a passing game. McNair completed his only pass on a screen to Monteleone for a 26-yard gain. Fillmore quarterback Art Rubio was 1-6 for no gain.

Monteleone (seven carries for 147 yards) scored his first of four touchdowns (one on an interception) on Oak Park’s opening possession. Splitting the carries with Monteleone, Mike Christensen skedaddled through the slop for 69 yards and two scores on a team-high nine carries.

The Eagles scored their second touchdown when McNair cut inside the Flashes’ right defensive end, who had committed to the pitch man, for a 36-yard touchdown run. McNair’s decision put co-head coach Dick Billingsley at ease as he worried about the timing of the option play because of lack of practice time and the absence of McNair the previous week.

MORRIS COHEN/The Acorn TOUGH TO TACKLE-Matt Vega, center, of Oak Park is taken down by Justin Johnson, top, and Ramiro Sanchez (both of Fillmore) during Friday night's game at Oak Park. The Eagles won, 49-0.

"Nolan means a great deal to us," said Billingsley. "His senior leadership No. 1 and the way he runs the option, and he is probably one of the best throwing quarterbacks in the county. I thought Sean Sammis did an incredible job filling in for him, but having your No. 1 quarterback is a real plus. We’re happy to have him back."

Oak Park’s front line dominated Fillmore on both offense and defense. The smothering defense of Loren Rosenberg, Mike Poupolo, Max Hodge, Andrew Henggeler and Mike Alexander held Filmore to 41 yards of total offense— the longest single gain coming on a nine-yard keeper by Rubio.

"Our offensive line, our defensive lines have been the strong point all year," said Billingsley. "I think we dominated both sides of the ball."

For Fillmore the entire week must have felt like one cruel Halloween prank after the next. Nine starters (four two-way players) earned expulsions from the team after they were caught drinking at a party. The remaining 23 players must feel like diligent trick-or-treaters, who just had their bag of candy snatched by a bully.

Far worse than the Halloween tradition of defacing property with eggs or toilet paper, the area’s most severe wildfire in 10 years threatened homes and charred the land of the small community northwest of Moorpark. With only one day of outdoor practice for the new starters to gel, Fillmore’s effort was admirable.

"You got to give Fillmore a lot of credit. They lost a couple kids, but (the remaining players) are real scrappy kids," said Billingsley about Fillmore’s effort.

Oak Park will try to sharpen its passing game in practice this week in preparation for a home game against Santa Paula tomorrow at 7:30 pm. McNair threw only two passes against Bishop before his injury.

Fillmore plays at Carpinteria at 7:30 p.m.