The CIF State Track and Field Championships will be held at Buchanan High School in Clovis for the next three years.

Rio Mesa High athletic director Brian FitzGerald spent the last two days in Oakland at the CIF Executive Committee Board meeting and said a three-year contract was completed.

Beginning with the 2009 meet, the state championships will be held at Veterans Memorial Stadium on the campus of Buchanan High.

It's first time since 1973 that the state championships will be held at a high school campus. The two-day meet has alternated between Cerritos College in Norwalk and Sacramento City College.

"For us, it's a closer trip and we won't have to fly when we travel up that way," FitzGerald said. "It will save us a little money. Plus, I like the idea of having it at a high school facility."

FitzGerald's trip to Oakland came during the Raiders coaching circus, which resulted in owner Al Davis firing head coach Lane Kiffin. FitzGerald could see the Raiders complex across the street from his meetings, but he didn't drop by the press conference.

"I don't even know who they got to replace him," FitzGerald said.

It's Tom Cable.

St. Bonaventure jumped two places in the weekly CalHiSports.com state ranking to No. 5.

The Seraphs were rewarded for their decisive 31-14 win over previous No. 5 Crespi (which dropped to No. 15).

St. Bonaventure has a bye this week as it prepares for an Oct. 10 road game against No. 1-ranked Long Beach Poly in the first game between the two schools.

The Agoura High football program has one of the highest scoring offenses in the area.

Behind quarterback Patrick Arias and running back Lucky Radley, the Chargers are averaging 34.3 points per game heading into Friday's Marmonte League home opener against Westlake.

Points don't come quickly out of the gate for Agoura, which has scored only 7 first quarter points in three games. Watch out for the second 12-minute period, however. Agoura has scored 48 points in second quarters.

By virtue of impressive wins over Foothill League programs Valencia and Canyon, Thousand Oaks has moved up to second in The Star's weekly football rankings. See how last Friday's games affected the rest of the rankings in Monday's paper

Carl Thompson, the winningest football coach in Camarillo history, will be honored at next Friday's home game against Ventura. Thompson guided the Scorpions to section championships in 1984 and 1996. Thompson's teams won 109 games in 18 seasons.

For the first time in school history, Pacifica has opened the football season with a 3-0 record. The fast start has put the Tritons on pace to the program's first winning season. Next up for Pacifica is Buena on Friday night. Buena won last year's game 14-6.

Buena boosters, don't bemoan. Just because the Bulldogs are 1-2 is no reason to dispair. Look how Buena has battled two of the county's best teams - Thousand Oaks and Oxnard - in consecutive weeks. If Buena had won its games against weaker opponents, it would have not been better off than raising the level of the program by keeping up with two very good veteran teams.

Below is the Star's game coverage for Friday night's football games. Here are all the box scores.

Marmonte League
Thousand Oaks 35, Canyon 24: Thousand Oaks stays unbeaten by Zachary McVicker in Thousand Oaks
Westlake 42, Hart 20: Backup plan works well for Westlake by David Lassen in Westlake Village
Newbury Park 7, Oak Park 0: Muscarella shines in NP win by Joe Curley in Newbury Park
Royal 20, Ventura 7: Defense finishes what offense starts by Brendan Malloy in Simi Valley
Channel Islands 32, Calabasas 28: Last-minute interception helps CI end 17-game skid by Richie Wohlers
Agoura 42, Rio Mesa 21

Channel League
St. Bonaventure 31, Crespi 14: Victory is Sweet Revenge by Derry Eads in Ventura and St. Bonaventure senior has big game by Rhiannon Potkey in Ventura
Oxnard 20, Buena 3: Oxnard has too many go-to guys by Jeffrey Dransfeldt in Ventura
Royal 20, Ventura 7: Defense finishes what offense starts by Brendan Malloy in Simi Valley
San Marcos 27, Hueneme 9: Turnovers prove costly for Hueneme by Lance O'Fallon in Port Hueneme

Pacific View League
Oxnard 20, Buena 3: Oxnard has too many go-to guys by Jeffrey Dransfeldt in Ventura
Camarillo 28, Golden Valley 0: Camarillo earns decisive win by Bob Buttitta in Canyon Country
Pacifica 27, Nordhoff 13: Pacifica thwarts Nordhoff comeback by Ted Cotti in Ojai
Channel Islands 32, Calabasas 28: Last-minute interception helps CI end 17-game skid by Richie Wohlers
San Marcos 27, Hueneme 9: Turnovers prove costly for Hueneme by Lance O'Fallon in Port Hueneme
Agoura 42, Rio Mesa 21

Tri-Valley League
Oaks Christian 45, Chaminade 0: Oaks Christian's offense gets rolling by Rich Romine in West Hills
Newbury Park 7, Oak Park 0: Muscarella shines in NP win by Joe Curley in Newbury Park
Santa Clara 40, Los Angeles Baptist 18: Wood proves versatile by Ivan Yeo in Oxnard
Pacifica 27, Nordhoff 13: Pacifica thwarts Nordhoff comeback by Ted Cotti in Ojai
Santa Paula 14, Bishop Diego 13: Santa Paula rallies by Dan Shiells in Santa Barbara
Grace Brethren 34, Carpenteria 23

Frontier League
Fillmore 35, Kilpatrick 24: Fillmore leans on Hayes in comeback by J.J. Rivera in Fillmore
Santa Paula 14, Bishop Diego 13: Santa Paula rallies by Dan Shiells in Santa Barbara
Villanova 48, Viewpoint 7 (Thur): Villanova runs over Viewpoint by Loren Ledin in Ojai
Grace Brethren 34, Carpenteria 23

The Newbury Park High football team's 7-0 shutout win over Oak Park Friday was the Panthers first shutout of a team other than Calabasas since they beat Simi Valley, 44-0, in Oct. 27, 2000.

RB Marcus Crawford had 194 yards and four touchdowns that night. QB Ryan Lombardo only had to throw four passes, completing three for 128 yards and two TDs.

Newbury Park High lost running back Chris Brown to a back injury for three to six weeks during its season-opening 14-7 win over Camarillo.

But amazingly, the Panthers haven't missed the defending Marmonte League Player of the Year, who rushed for 1,904 yards and 22 TDs last year.

Junior Cameron Roberson rushed for 84 yards in a reserve role in Week 1 and 202 yards and four TDs in the 44-14 win over Rio Mesa in Week 2. Friday night, he added another 216 yards from scrimmage -- 164 yards rushing and 52 yards receiving -- in Newbury Park's 7-0 win over Oak Park.

"When the summer rolled around, we knew we had two special athletes," said first-year Newbury Park head coach Gary Fabricius. "We just worried about how we were going to get them both the ball.

"You feel for Chris. It's his senior year. He's the returning Marmonte League MVP."

And they don't miss him?

"It's kind of crazy," said Fabricius, shaking his head.

Brown was on the sidelines Friday, wear his No. 8 jersey and a Newbury Park High cap. He looked like he was doing more than his fair share of cheering and coaching.

Star receiver Phillip Muscarella made two plays tonight which ensured Newbury Park improved to 3-0 for the second straight season.

The junior caught the only touchdown of the Panthers' 7-0 win over Oak Park, broke up the Eagles' bid to tie the game with 1:12 left and, afterwards, didn't hide his relief.

"Honestly, I think we underestimated them," said Muscarella, who added that his teammates took one look at Oak Park's 44-7 loss to Royal and figured they were in for a cakewalk.

"We definitely did," agreed running back Cameron Roberson.

Per Star teammate Ivan Yeo, Cierre Wood didn't just run for touchdowns of 3, 15 and 49 yards tonight in Santa Clara's 40-18 win over Los Angeles Baptist, the Notre Dame-bound running back also caught a touchdown pass and threw a touchdown pass.

Last season, the Saints made Wake Forest-bound end Randi Vines into a quarterback and won the CIF-Southern Section Mid-Valley Division title.

Maybe they could run the Single Wing the rest of the year and compete for the Tri-Valley League?

As pregame ceremonies go, Westlake High came up with something pretty special before Friday's football game with Hart.

On the sidelines before the game -- and on the field in his army uniform as one of Westlake's team captains for the coin toss -- was 86-year-old World War II veteran Ed (Doc) Pepping of Whittier, who served as a medic in the Army paratrooper unit immortalized in the book and HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers."

The Westlake football team has been using "Band of Brothers" as a theme for a couple years now -- coach Jim Benkert picked up the idea from BYU at a coaches' clinic in Utah.

"We were looking to take it to another level this year," he said. "So we started looking for a member of the Band of Brothers in this area."

They found Pepping, who came to the school earlier this year and spoke at a ceremony in which members of the football team received military-style dog tags to signify being part of the Band of Brothers.

Highlights of his comments -- along from those of players, who were asked to explain in a sentence what the theme "Band of Brothers" meant to them, were part of a short video played on Westlake's new color video board before the game.

Pepping then went arm in arm with three Westlake players for the mid-field coin toss -- hugging each of the Hart captains while there -- and received a warm ovation from fans of both teams before leaving the field.

"Band of Brothers" veteran Ed Pepping takes the field with Westlake's captains ...

... and is shown during a pregame feature on Westlake's new video board.

The scoreboard: Strictly speaking, it's not a new Westlake scoreboard -- the video component has just been added on top of the old scoreboard, replacing a message board segment. It makes for a pretty massive piece of equipment -- I suggested to Benkert that it might be a hazard to low-flying planes -- but it's pretty impressive, too, to be able to watch highlights of a previous game in color on the scoreboard, as well as various graphics encouraging chants of "Defense" and the like.

Instant replay is certainly a possibility (to the best of my knowledge, there weren't any replays on Friday) -- but, unfortunately, so is video advertising. I suppose every technological advance has its downside.

Looking to say something? At Newbury Park High, it costs $1.

Public address announcer Ron Gellenbeck announces "air-grams" throughout the action during the game.

During Friday's game against Oak Park, Gellenbeck congratulated fans on birthdays and anniversaries.

It may be considered a passing-oriented league, yet the Marmonte League includes three of the top six Ventura County runners entering Week 3:

2. Thousand Oaks senior John Lister has rushed for 472 yards and 3 TDs on 43 carries.
3. Moorpark junior Austin Edmonson has rushed for 361 yards and 5 TDs on 65 carries.
6. Newbury Park junior Cameron Roberson has rushed for 285 yards and 4 TDs on 38 carries.

Consider also that Roberson is only filling in for senior Chris Brown (23 att., 104 yards, 1 TD), who injured his back in the season opener at Camarillo.

Other notable Marmonte League runners include Royal's Matt Rulon and Westlake's Taylor Mowry.

When Fillmore scored 41 points against Village Christian and 42 against Bishop Diego over the last two weeks, it marked the first time  since 1958 that a Flashes team had scored 40 or more points in consecutive games.

Fifty years ago, Fillmore beat Carpinteria, 59-6, and Lompoc, 53-6, in back-to-back games.

Friday night's football game between St. Bonaventure and Crespi isn't just a matchup of two top 10 state-ranked teams. It can have distinct postseason implications.

There will be five state championship games, an increase of two over the last two years. The focus will be the open division, which will pair the best team from the North against the best team from the South. It allows a smaller school like defending Division III state champion St. Bonaventure a chance to be selected by a committee to the upper tiered game.

Not only must St. Bonaventure win a CIF title to be considered, it must do well in the non-league games. How well St. Bonaventure does against Crespi and nationally ranked Long Beach Poly in two weeks will weigh heavy for St. Bonaventure, should it win the Northern Division title.

The Calabasas High girls' tennis team has been playing without top singles player Sabrina Man-Son-Hing the last couple of matches.

Received an e-mail from Thousand Oaks High football coach Mike Leiben, who reports running back John Lister rushed for a school single-game record 307 yards in Friday's 28-6 win over Buena.

It was announced over the public address system after the game that Lister, who was named the Star's Male Athlete of the Week, had rushed for 297 yards.

The statistical issue was caused by a first half swing pass from quarterback Ian Shultis, which should have been scored a running play because it was a lateral.

The Lancers are 2-0. Here is my story from the game.