With one regular season game left on the schedule, the Escalon varsity football Cougars will be on the road this week. They will play at Livingston in a Friday night, Oct. 28 game and have their sights set on defeating the Wolves. Escalon, winners of three straight, enter the game with a 6-3 overall record and are now 3-2 in the Trans-Valley League.
The chance for a league title slipped away as the Cougars dropped two games to open the TVL campaign, falling to Hughson and Hilmar. But they have since found their bearings and put together their best effort of the league season this past Friday night at Ripon with a 43-0 shutout win. (See story, photos in Sports, Page A10.)
“It was a different feeling, from the walk through at 7 a.m. on Friday, to the student body on campus, the administration, everybody was excited and geared up,” head coach Andrew Beam said of the approach to the rivalry game with the Indians. “In the locker room, coach Frosty (Van Houten) gave a motivational speech … you were ready to run through a wall if you heard it.”
That motivation, coupled with the Cougars’ desire to prove they can make some noise in the postseason, paved the way for the huge shutout victory.
“Our playoffs started tonight, I believe that so it was good to come out and play to our capability,” said senior and team captain Owen Nash. “I think our defense played really well tonight, we capitalized on everything, all of their mistakes we capitalized on, I thought we just played great, all around.”
Celebrating his birthday in style, junior Javier Gutierrez had three interceptions against Ripon, including one he returned for a touchdown. For his effort, he received the Ball Out Belt as the outstanding player of the game.
“It was just a great game all around, the defensive line got pressure and that allowed me to get those picks,” Gutierrez said. “We were expecting a dog fight; we came out here and gave it our all.”
Junior quarterback Donovan Rozevink put together a solid performance as well, passing for over 200 yards while guiding his team to the end zone.
“It was big on both sides of the ball, I mean we haven’t won here in 11 years, our last 12 times we’ve played them, we’re 6 and 6 so it was good to take the lead on that and be up 7-6 and get another win here in Ripon,” said Rozevink. “It was a big shutout by our defense … they really stepped it up.”
Scoring three touchdowns on the night, senior Logan Anderson agreed that defense made the difference.
“Our boys played awesome on both sides of the ball, especially on defense, we haven’t played defense like that since last year and it really warms my heart to know that we can play physical and just crush ‘em like that; it was a great win,” Anderson said. “We put up ‘0’ for our coach (Brandon) Hoover (defensive coordinator), it’s his birthday, it’s Javi’s birthday, he had a great day, three picks, everybody contributed on the team; it was awesome.”
Beam said seeing the team come together with some energy, enthusiasm and toughness bodes well for the regular season finale at Livingston as well as moving on to the playoffs.
From here on out, he told the team, it will be all gas, no brakes.
“The biggest thing to work on is just to keep rolling, we’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing,” Rozevink said. “Keep having good practices, stay focused.”
