Recap
Ventura, CA — Casey Webb has been radiating with excitement for the arriving football season.
It felt like the Oak Park head coach knew a secret that he couldn’t wait to share with the rest of Ventura County.
The Eagles revealed a first glimpse of that potential in Friday night’s season-opening 33-21 win at Buena.
“Every team deserves to get love in Ventura County and rightly so, because there’s so many good football players out here,” Webb said. “I’m just advocating for ours, because I’m with them so much, I love them, this group has been special to me.
“I want to showcase them.”
Senior running back Rowan Heidt can for 150 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries and senior quarterback Kadyn Parr threw three touchdown passes, two to Max Peters, who also had an interception, to lead Oak Park (1-0).
“It gives us the confidence to shine and do what we did today,” Peters said of his head coach.
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Unfortunately, the result comes with an important note. Buena was without quarterback Zane Carter, The Star’s reigning All-County Offensive Player of the Year, due to an unspecified “health situation.”
“I’m not going to comment on a kid’s health situation,” Buena coach Ryan Bolland said. “He wasn’t able to play tonight.”
Asked when Carter was expected to return, Bolland underlined his importance to the team.
“Obviously, he’s our unquestioned starting quarterback and leader,” Bolland said. “As soon as he’s able to play, he’s going to play.”
Backup Ty Weeks made his first varsity start, but was knocked out of the game on an illegal hit in the second quarter.
Senior Camden Walker, listed as a running back on the roster, moved to quarterback in an emergency role and played well.
“It’s really challenging when you have that situation,” Bolland said. “He played his butt off. I was really proud of him.”
Senior Colin Guenther kept the Bulldogs in the game with a memorable performance.
After Oak Park took an early 7-0 lead on Parr’s 9-yard TD pass to Hayden Lynch, Guenther returned the subsequent kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown.
After Oak Park took a 20-8 lead on Heidt’s 43-yard TD run and Parr’s 10-yard TD run, Gunther’s heroics gave Buena a brief lead.
His 29-yard catch-and-run on Walker’s first completion set up a 1-yard Walker TD run, pulling Buena within 20-14 with 2:09 left in the first half.
Guenther then weaved through traffic to take a screen 65 yards for a touchdown, and a 21-20 Buena lead, on the first possession of the second half.
“He’s such an explosive athlete,” Bolland said of Guenther. “He’s improved even from last year. … He’s playing the game more physically. He’s more confident.”
Oak Park retook control in the third quarter, when Parr connected with Peters for TD passes of 15 and 18 yards to build a 33-21 lead with 1:55 left in the third quarter.
“We connected,” Peters said. “We found each other and it worked.”
Parr completed 9 of 18 passes for 70 yards and also ran for 76 yards on nine carries. Peters caught three passes for 36 yards to lead a receiving corps without starters Landon Holmes and Jaden Brown due to injury.
Peters added an interception that put the game away with 3:23 to play.
“It was just a really fun game,” said Parr.
An impressive performance by a physical Oak Park defense was led by Lucas Soaras Gache’s 12 tackles and Max Romanov’s six tackles and forced a fumble.
“Every run play there was three guys in the backfield and Buena has an amazing offensive line,” Webb said. “I think that says a lot about our guys.”