The saying in the halls on the campus of Escalon High School is that “Tradition Never Graduates” but officials did break with tradition just a bit, and hosted the Senior Night festivities for football to start the season. It’s usually hosted at the final home Trans-Valley League game, but it was decided to switch it up this year, avoiding extra fanfare later, when a trip to the playoffs or the league title could be on the line.
Recognition for the senior football players, accompanied by family members, came in a ceremony prior to kickoff of the Friday, Aug. 22 contest. At halftime, there was another ceremony, this one honoring the senior cheerleaders who perform at games, as well as the senior band and choir members, who are on hand for home games to entertain the crowd and sing the national anthem.
“I think it’s better, I feel like we got off on the right foot just because of all the energy that the Senior Night brought. I honestly like it,” explained senior and one of this year’s team captains, quarterback Logan Huebner. “I didn’t know how to feel about it at first but now that it happened, I feel like it was great and I’m just proud of how the team played.”
Escalon thumped visiting Rodriguez out of Fairfield by a 35-14 final, a satisfying victory over a team the Cougars had never faced before.
“I think they thought that we were just a Wing-T team, just a running team,” Huebner added of their opponent. “We showed ‘em differently, we showed them our speed, we showed them everything.”
Sophomore Dylan Ball – who scored the first three touchdowns of the game – had nothing but praise for his senior teammates on their special night, including one who paved the way to the end zone for him.
“I’ve got to give Luca Cerasi credit, he made some amazing blocks on all three of those touchdowns, I practically walked in on two of them,” Ball said. “It just feels so nice to be back out here with the guys; the energy change is so amazing.”
Senior captain Lorenzo Teixeira said he felt the Cougars put together a solid game plan and followed it well.
“I thought the run game was good, just hard physical runs by our backs, good blocking by our O-line,” Teixeira said.
He added that many seniors are stepping up to serve as leaders for the team, not just those five that were selected by their teammates as captains for this season.
Chase Cummings, also a team captain, said he is taking that role seriously.
“It really is a confidence booster, just knowing that I’m able to influence guys and kind of set the tone a little bit, I think our seniors this year, we just love the game of football,” Cummings said.
He added that the team mentality is to improve on last season, when the Cougars ended with a .500 record.
“This is what we’ve been doing our whole lives … 6-6 (last year), that’s just not us; so we just wanted to come out here, Week One, set the tone, and I think we did that perfectly,” Cummings explained. “We had all our guys showing up, putting in hard work, long days, I saw a lot of guys improve, it was really good this summer in the weight room.”
Head coach Andrew Beam said being able to recognize the players, cheerleaders, band and choir seniors for all their efforts throughout the years at Escalon High was special, with a big crowd on hand, to go along with the big win.
Look for a complete list of the senior honorees recognized at the home opener in the Sept. 3 issue of The Times.
This year’s captains for the varsity football team are Lorenzo Teixeira, Rylan Koops, Logan Huebner, Chase Cummings and Ben Ferreira.
“It was just good to be back playing football,” Beam said of Friday night at Engel Field. “Winning feels good and we played soundly on both sides of the ball.”
