Teams Will Be Flipping, Flopping

Teams might start flipping out in the Marmonte League.

With the final regular-season games tonight, four football teams are fighting for three playoff spots with the chance of a coin flip determining who sits out the post-season.

This much is known: Westlake High is in the playoffs, Simi Valley and Moorpark are out. Royal, Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks and Agoura are very much alive.

If Royal (5-3-1, 2-2-1 in league play) defeats winless Simi Valley, the Highlanders are in the playoffs for the first time since 1994. Moorpark would be out.

If Thousand Oaks (4-5, 3-2) beats Newbury Park, the Lancers are in and Newbury Park (3-6, 2-3) is out.

But if Newbury Park beats Thousand Oaks, the teams could join Agoura with 3-3 league records, leaving three teams for two remaining playoff spots.

That’s when the flipping would begin.

The logjam might be avoided next season with the addition of Calabasas, giving the Marmonte League eight teams instead of seven and providing one more league game.

“When you get seven teams, it makes it kind of tough,” Westlake Coach Jim Benkert said. “You almost need to play one more game to figure everything out. Then you have an odd number in terms of how many games you played.”