Ventura High plowed its own path back to the CIF-Southern Section football finals.
The Cougars came out swinging from the first snap, when James Watson raced for a 41-yard gain, and didn’t stop, not even when Tristan Savage put the game away with his third touchdown run with 3:21 to play.
Savage ran for 158 yards and three TDs on 24 carries and Watson rushed for 148 yards on 17 carries as Ventura handled host Agoura 28-14 in the Division 6 semifinal at Agoura High on Friday, Nov. 21.
“Our plan was to come out in the first half and pound,” Ventura coach Tim Garcia said. “They had a lot of two-way guys. We wanted to make sure we physically challenged them in the first half and (by the third quarter) make sure they were worn down.”
Behind a dominant performance by the offensive line of Christian Rea, Miguel Mijares, Nathan Howry, Jesse DeAlba and Jack Bell, as well as tight end Jaddyn Delorenzo and H-back Jordan Butcher, the Cougars piled up for 332 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 47 carries.
“I’m super proud of those guys up front,” said senior linebacker Tristan Phillips. “Coming into the game, I told them, ‘We’re going to win this game in the trenches.’ And we came out and absolutely ran the ball on them.”
Ventura was able to hold possession for nearly 35 minutes — almost a full three of the game’s four quarters — as it ground down the Agoura defense physically.
“They knew what was coming and they couldn’t stop it,” Phillips said. “It was a great night.”
Advancing to its sixth sectional final, and its first since 2014, Ventura (11-2) will visit St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy (4-6) this weekend in Downey for the Division 6 championship.
“We’re still hungry and we’re still yet to play our best ball,” Ventura quarterback Derek Garcia said. “Every week we’re progressing.”
Agoura’s finest season since 2004, when its last run to the sectional semifinals was also halted by Ventura, ends at 10-3.
“They’re just a physical team there,” Agoura coach Dustin Croick said. “They’ve got a really good thing going right there. Everything is kind of going their way. … It was a tough night for us for sure.”
Senior quarterback Gavin Gray, playing on an injured ankle, completed 14 of 30 passes for 163 yards, one TD and one interception. Junior running back George Hastings ran nine times for 61 yards and Luke Bussiere converted two field goals.
Senior defensive end Albert Bellingrath had two sacks and batted down a pass for the Agoura defense.
“They’re just tough kids and they gave us everything they had,” Croick said. “With the type of offensive line that Ventura has and the way that they run the ball physically, it’s going to be very tough for any Agoura team, if we’re healthy or not.”
Ventura pounded its way to the Agoura 18 and 32 on its first two possessions, but the Chargers were able to escape both unscathed, thanks to a Bellingrath sack and an Anderson Mercer fumble recovery.
The Cougars took advantage of a short field to take a 7-0 lead on Savage’s 2-yard run with 8:39 left in the second quarter.
The throwback game plan did threaten to backfire on Ventura, which fumbled the ball five times. But the Cougars were able to mitigate the damage by recovering three of the loose balls.
Two of the recovered fumbles prolonged a key 13-play, 80-yard drive capped by Savage’s 1-yard run, which gave Ventura a 14-0 lead with 48 seconds left in the first half.
“I think lady luck has been on our side the past two weeks,” Croick said. “Tonight the ball just bounced a couple different ways … that’s football, man.”
Gray’s 15-yard pass to Murphy Glynn set up Luke Bussiere’s 36-yard field as the first half expired to pull Agoura within 14-3 at the break.
Ventura’s fifth fumble of the night, recovered by Agoura’s Tyler Starling on the Ventura 26, threatened to give the Chargers some momentum.
But Agoura was forced to settle for a 38-yard Bussiere field goal, making it 14-6 with 6:05 left in the third quarter.
“Our defense put the fire out … which was huge,” Tim Garcia said. “Our seniors keep their composure in critical times and the young guys feed off of that. Even though we had some self-inflicted wounds, our guys kept working through that.”
Ventura entered the game with the state’s leading receiver and its ground-and-pound game plan meant Jack Cunningham was largely a decoy.
But the senior star still produced the game’s biggest moment late in the third quarter.
Ventura burned consecutive timeouts as it faced fourth down and 26 from the Agoura 38. The Chargers were on the cusp of winning the ball back in a one-score game late in the third quarter.
Flushed from the pocket, Derek Garcia flung the ball towards Cunningham in the back corner of the end zone and Cunningham tapped his toes inbounds as he stunningly reeled in the ball for a 38-yard TD.
“I ran a deep post and they gave up on the play,” Cunningham said. “Derek flushed out with his playmaking abilities and he hit me in the back corner. Just toe-tap, simple as that.”
Garcia completed 12 of 20 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown and Cunningham caught six passes for 59 yards and a TD.
Down 21-6, Agoura produced its best offensive possession of the game, a seven-play, 80-yard drive. Gray’s 37-yard strike to Starling set up a 2-yard TD pass to Mercer.
The conversion pass to Will Gelt pulled Agoura back within striking distance at 21-14 with 9:27 to play.
But Savage and the Cougars offensive line extinguished Agoura’s sliver of hope with a 10-play, 80-yard march.
One play after intentionally sitting down on the 1-yard line after breaking a 17-yard run, Savage ran for a 1-yard TD run that pushed the Ventura lead to 28-14 with 3:21 to play.
Three plays later, Phillips put the game away with an interception.
“I knew it was coming,” Phillips said. “I got right under it and went up and got it.”
Two weeks after their first playoff win in four years, the Channel League champions flooded onto the field to celebrate their first sectional final berth in 11 years.
“We thought the expectation was to win league this year,” Derek Garcia said. “The new goal was to go make a run in the playoffs and we’re doing that right now really effectively.
“We’re winning those close games, those big moments.”
Joe Curley covers football for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter/X, Instagram/Threads, Facebook and Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura overpowers Agoura to reach CIF-SS Division 6 football final
Reporting by Joe Curley, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
