BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers RIGHT ON TARGET—Left, Brent Gouett takes a shot against goalie Andrew Trow as the Thousand Oaks boys’ water polo team practices earlier this week in preparation for their Marmonte League opener against Westlake Wednesday. Said Trow, “My favorite part about playing goalie is intimidating the opposition. If you have blocked a lot of their shots, they’re a little more hesitant to shoot on you.” With only two returning varsity players and three seniors on the 11man squad among nine up from the junior varsity, Thousand Oaks water polo head coach Mike Giles knows the this season will be a major challenge.

Juniors Daniel Smith and Ryan Vick, slated to play the all-around position, are expected to be mainstays for the Lancers, along with the seniors, center Brent Gouett, attacker Andrew Knizek and goalie Andrew Trow.

“Gouett and Trow, then Vick, Smith and (junior center) Elliot Weideman may be the core of the team,” Giles said. “The surprising comer is sophomore (center) Brendan Donohue. He’s 6-foot-4 going on 6-foot-5, a lefty and he’s the fastest guy on the team.”

Donohue is the only CIF swimmer in the Lancer lineup.

While he isn’t firmly set on his starters, the coach, beginning his third season at the helm, said, “it is a young team coming up against a difficult league that has a lot of varsity experience.”

Thousand Oaks began the week with a 3-3 record and played the Westlake Warriors yesterday afternoon.

In earlier games, the Lancers lost to Santa Barbara, 10-5, despite Smith scoring three goals, sophomore center Brandon Donahue and Trow scoring one each and Vick making four assists.

Trow said his goal was scored on Santa Barbara about two seconds before halftime.

“I just threw it as hard as I could and it just happened to skip right before it got to the other goalie and went right under his arm,” he said.

The goal was his second while playing goalie, the first one made during a game last summer.

“We gave Santa Barbara a game,” the Lancer coach said. “Actually, it’s the best we ever played Santa Barbara—ever. We’re pretty pleased with that.

“It was 6-4 with three minutes to go when we let them get away. So, Santa Barbara is currently ranked in the top three in CIF Southern Division,” Giles said.

During the Conejo Valley Classic, Thousand Oaks beat the Loyola Cubs, 9-7, but lost to the Oaks Christian Lions, 10-6, and the Crescenta Valley Falcons, 1110. In these three games, Vick scored eight times, Gouett added five more goals, and Trow was credited with 21 saves.

“We had a tremendous tournament at the Conejo Valley Classic just to start with,” Giles said. “We did well and we were right up there in the final four and we were happy with that. We did excellent.”

The Lancers played yesterday against Westlake at their newly reconstructed on-campus pool.

“It used to be the old ‘L’,” Giles said. “We went to Westlake for a year. Westlake was gracious enough to host us, so here we go with a brand new toy.”

Upcoming next for the Lancers is the 40th annual Buena Water Polo Tournament today through Saturday with 12 teams entered. In addition to Thousand Oaks, others in the Marmonte League participating are the Agoura Chargers, Newbury Park Panthers and Westlake Warriors.

“We play Cabrillo, another top 12-ranked team, and a potential league champion,” the coach said. “They’re nails. Then the season kicks in.”

The Lancers have a league road game on against the Calabasas Coyotes Wednesday followed by another away game vs. the Newbury Park Panthers Oct. 5. The first league home game will be against the Moorpark Musketeers on Oct. 7. All games have 3:15 p.m. start times.

Gouett, happy to be on the varsity, said that as center, he’s the Lancers’ postman.

“You spend the entire time fighting for position, trying to get in front of whoever is there (to stop you from) getting a shot off,” he said.

“You are the closet one to the goal. It’s the most fun position. It’s the most physical position of the game and you probably have to do the most work,” Gouett added.

As a driver or attacker, Knizek said he sets things in motion and allows for movement to score.

“The diver gets people open,” Knizek said. “He moves everybody around in the pool causing the other team to panic if they don’t know what to do, or just forget what they’re supposed to do.

“Like just helping out the team, allowing other people to do things. If I’m driving and I scoop off someone else’s guy, it means they’re open and they usually score, which is what’ the game is all about,” Knizek said.

Trow said he’s benefited as a goalie from what he’s learned from his dad, Gary, who played goalie in high school and college.

“I always seem to get lots of help from him, from him being a goalie,” Trow said. “It’s easier for me, too. I like being able to be a leader on the team, to be the last option to save the team is kind of nice. It’s also a lot of pressure, but I think I can handle it.” Along with the first seven players, four others expected to see their share of the action for the Lancers: junior attackers Dustin Adler, Sean Pearson, Chase Serino and junior center Trevor Talan.

Looking at the league this season, Giles said that the Marmonte should have good balance across the board.

“Currently we’ve been able to work our way to the top 10,” he said. “Westlake we all expected to be top 10. They had a difficult tournament and we had good tournament. So we kind of flip-flopped.

“I think all seven teams are going to battle, for sure six, Newbury, T.O., Westlake, Moorpark are all battling there for three and four and Agoura and Royal for one and two,” Giles said. Giles added that all teams aryoung—Agoura, Royal, NewburyT.O. and Moorpark. “Westlake has a few incrediblgood seniors and they have a greayounger team. Anything can happen. You can flip a coin,” he saidGouett sees Thousand Oaks aa strong team this season.

“I think we’re going to dgood this year because we’ve goa pretty good team,” he said“(But) we just need to bond little more as a team.”

Knizek echoed Gouett. “The maturity just needs tgo up a notch or two,” he said“I think we can win league ango far into the CIF (playoffs)It’s a great team.”