With the chance for a bye on Sept. 24, the Escalon Cougars are ready to welcome the rival Hilmar Yellowjackets to Engel Field at Memorial Stadium on Friday night, Oct. 1.

It will be Escalon’s second Trans-Valley League contest of the season, having opened up on the road with a 21-13 victory at Hughson on Sept. 17. The Cougars also had three pre-season wins and one loss, playing a total of five games before the bye week. They have five more scheduled, all in league, starting with the Yellowjackets.

“Big TVL game this Friday,” agreed varsity head coach Andrew Beam. “Both teams are 4-1.”

Hilmar lost a close, low-scoring 7-3 game to Ripon on Sept. 24.

“Hilmar is unbelievably fast and skilled; they have one of the best playmakers in our league in Derek Taylor,” explained Beam.

He said the six-foot-six Taylor is a wide receiver and defensive end, adept at making plays on both sides of the ball.

“We needed our bye week, we had a few key players nursing injuries these last few weeks and the bye hopefully allowed them to rest a little and heal up for this final stretch of the season,” Beam said.

The Escalon freshman team was the only Cougar squad on the football field this past week, falling in a hard fought contest to the Pitman Pride by a 38-24 final on Thursday, Sept. 23. They go on the road to play Hilmar on Sept. 30.

This week’s home contests with Hilmar begin with the JV game at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1 followed by varsity kickoff about 7 p.m.