TURNING THE CORNER—Moorpark High's Trevor Legore, left, and Jordan Le race after Simi Valley running back Mitchell Virzi during last weekend's 45-14 Pioneer loss at Moorpark. Simi Valley is trying to bounce back from an 0-5 start to the season. It's still early in the football season, but the Marmonte League has a familiar foe in the fight for a league title—Royal High.

One year after the Simi Valley Acorn asked its readers, "What's wrong with Royal?" the football program has turned things around and is back to its winning ways.

Royal lost a heartbreaker to Newbury Park on the road last week, but before that, the Highlanders had won their previous three games by an average of 30 points per contest.

The Highlanders' 3-1 start was their best since the 2005 season, which was the last time Royal finished above .500.

After missing the postseason last year, RHS, 3-2 overall, 1-1 in league, will play its most important game in nearly two seasons when they host Moorpark tonight at 7:30 p.m.

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers LEADER—Royal High QB Trevor Shubert, left, escapes the rush of Newbury Park's Jackson Powell. "I don't think there was ever anything ever wrong with Royal," Royal head coach Gene Uebelhardt said.

"But all those 'wrong' players now have more experience. This team is better and more talented than last year. You'd have to be a fool not to see it."

One of the Highlanders benefiting the most from a year of experience is senior quarterback Trevor Shubert.

Shubert has completed 88of137 passes for 892 yards and five touchdowns. The quarterback has also found pay dirt four times rushing the ball.

"There isn't a better quarterback in Ventura County," Uebelhardt said. "He's smart, he's mentally tough, he's an inch taller, and he's matured. It took him a while to learn a very difficult offense to grasp, but I believe he's got it now."

Shubert's favorite targets have been senior Sean Miller (35 receptions for 380 yards and three touchdowns) and junior Connor Wolcott (17 receptions for 134 yards).

Senior Matt Rulon, who's carried the ball 66 times for 386 yards and a team-leading seven touchdowns, has anchored the rushing attack.

While the offense has been steady, the defense has been very good as well, especially since the Highlanders' Week 1 loss to Chaminade.

In Royal's last four games, the defense has allowed only 37 points (nine points per game).

Royal's defense has been led by a trio of seniors—nose guard Tyler Genovese, and linebackers Michael Leipzig and Jake Rollins.

For Royal to get a win against Moorpark, the defense will have to pick it up another notch.

The Musketeers defense has allowed only 66 total points, and Moorpark's offense can put points on the scoreboard through the air or on the ground.

"Moorpark is the class of this league," Uebelhardt said. "They have a great defense and a great tailback (Austin Edmonson).

"The Marmonte League is very tough, so we don't see it as a must-win game, but it would be a great win for us."

While things seem to be going right for Royal, everything seems to be going wrong for Simi Valley.

Ever since senior Brent Keys took the season's opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, the Simi faithful haven't had much to cheer about.

The Pioneers are the only winless team in the Marmonte. SVHS trails only Calabasas in most points allowed and fewest points earned.

"The story of our season has been mistakes," said SVHS head coach Todd Borowski following the Pioneers' 45-14 loss at Moorpark last weekend.

"There is only one way to go right now, and that's up."

Although Simi Valley has struggled, Borowski said the team hasn't quit.

"Two losses in league will still get us in the playoffs," Borowski said. "We're 0-2, yeah, but I believe Thousand Oaks and Moorpark have a lot to do with that as well. In my opinion, those are the top two teams in our league right now. "We're very capable of having a good football team. We jusneed to stop turning the ball oveand putting ourselves in a bad spoearly in games." SVHS continues to rotate twquarterbacks—seniors JareZahorik and Tim Ferralli. Thankfully, both signal-callers have the option of throwinto talented senior wideout KeitWilliams. Williams has 12 receptions for a team-leading 19yards. He caught an 80-yartouchdown last weekend aMoorpark.

The Pioneer defense has beeled by senior defensive bacShane Digirolomo, senior linebacker Tim McAnany, juniomiddle linebacker Denny Vigand junior defensive back Adam Schechter. SVHS hosts Agoura tonight a7:30 p.m.

While Royal and Simi Valleduke it out in the MarmonteGrace Brethren is hoping it cahave success in its first year in thFrontier League after playing thpast two seasons in the Tri-Valley League. t

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After starting the season 0-2, GBHS seemed to be back to its old winning ways by earning victories in Weeks 3 and 4.

The following two weeks, however, Grace Brethren struggled by dropping games to Paraclete and Bishop Diego. The Lancers' record now stands at 2-4 as they begin league play tonight against Malibu at Moorpark College.

"We need to be more patient on offense," Grace Brethren head coach Terry Gourley said.

"Against Bishop Diego, we never punted, but we turned the ball over five times. Against Paraclete, we had the ball in the red zone seven times but could only score twice. We'd have eight-minute drives and come up with nothing."

The senior combination of quarterback Kevin Ramay and wide receiver Travis Sproat leads the Grace Brethren offense once again.

Ramay has thrown 10 touchdowns this year. Five of them have been to Sproat.

"You just know that those two are going to make some really great plays each game," Gourley said. "They've been unbelievable for us over the years."

Although GBHS is below .500, Gourley feels the squad has the right attitude and is practicing as well as they have all year.

"Overall, we're playing exciting football," Gourley said. "We're not ahead of where we want to be, but we are going in the right direction."

Marmonte standings