Football: Marmonte League begins this week

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The last season of the 10-team Marmonte League as we know it begins. Next year, they will be separated into five-team divisions, with a championship game at the end.

Moorpark hosts Thousand Oaks on Friday night in the best Marmonte League opener. Each school had last week off in preparation for the game.

The question for Moorpark and Thousand Oaks is whether either school is capable of breaking up the Oaks Christian-St. Bonaventure-Westlake trio or are they just competing for fourth place in league?

I think Moorpark has the most potential because it has quarterback Grant Rohach, an Iowa State commit who has the chance to be one of the top quarterbacks in Southern California. Rohach took his official visit to Iowa State on Saturday, watching his future team beat Iowa in triple overtime. ‘He was excited,’ Coach Tim Lins said.

Thousand Oaks has been under the radar because it lost to graduation Richard Mullaney, its standout receiver-defensive back from a year ago. But the Lancers started with a 62-0 win over Hueneme, and Coach Mike Leibin is as competitive as they come.

This is just the beginning of a series of Marmonte League showdowns, including Oaks Christian-St. Bonaventure and Westlake-Thousand Oaks on Sept. 23, Westlake-Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure-Moorpark on Oct. 6 and St. Bonaventure-Westlake on Nov. 10.

-- Eric Sondheimer