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Memorable Season Concludes With Plenty Of Cougar Kudos
VARSITY FOOT PIX
In what was a stellar season for Escalon’s varsity football program, there were multiple players receiving honors. Among those recognized at the Awards Night hosted recently at Escalon High School were, from left, Darius Higby, Sam Jimenez, Josh Graham, Donovan Rozevink, Nate Krieger, Gio Chavez and Jamin Miller. Escalon also had several players earning All-League recognition as the Cougars were undefeated Trans-Valley League champions. Photo Contributed

With a daunting season ahead of them, the Escalon varsity football Cougars took control of their own destiny.

An extensive renovation project at Engel Field saw Escalon playing on the road through all of the preseason and into the Trans-Valley League campaign, finally getting on their home field for the first time in the Oct. 20 Homecoming contest against rival Ripon.

Escalon played to a 4-1 record in a preseason that saw them face off with and defeat top echelon teams including Golden Valley of Merced, Buchanan of Clovis, Windsor and Oakdale. Their lone preseason loss was to California High School of San Ramon.

They then went on a tear through the Trans-Valley League, going 5-0 during the regular season to claim the undisputed championship of the TVL with wins over Hughson, Modesto Christian, Hilmar, Ripon and Livingston.

Entering the playoffs with a 9-1 record, Escalon faced the daunting challenge of moving up to Division 4, based on winning the past two Division 5 blue banners, in 2021 and 2022.

They did go in as the number one seed and made the most of their opportunity in the higher division. After a first round bye, the Cougars took down the Sacramento Dragons 57-32 in the quarterfinals, defeated the West Park Panthers 48-28 in the semifinals and earned a come-front-behind last minute win on a 2-point conversion, 36-35, over Patterson for the Section blue banner.

That put Escalon into the NorCals, where they were bumped up yet again, to Division 3-AA and that’s where their season ended. … in a runner-up role to NorCal – and eventual State champions –Acalanes High School.

Recently, football players gathered for team recognition and also learned the results of the Trans-Valley League honors.

The 2023 Team Awards presented were: Most Valuable Offensive Player Samuel Jimenez, Most Valuable Defensive Player Nate Krieger, Most Inspirational Jamin Miller, Most Improved Darius Higby, Most Valuable Back Josh Graham, Most Valuable Back Donovan Rozevink, Most Valuable Lineman Gio Chavez, Most Valuable Lineman Anthony Jones, Coaches Award Matthew Rangel, Coaches Award Derek Silva.

Head coach Andrew Beam said several of the Cougars were also recognized with Trans-Valley All-League selections. That included the league’s Most Valuable Player award for senior Donovan Rozevink; the Most Outstanding Defensive Player honor went to junior Ryan Lewis; Most Outstanding Defensive Back was junior Sam Jimenez and Most Outstanding Offensive Back was senior Josh Graham. Most Outstanding Linebacker went to senior Nate Krieger.

Earning First Team recognition were Sam Jimenez, Wide Receiver; Gio Chavez, Offensive Line; Josh Graham, Running Back; Jamin Miller, Runing Back; Ben Lora, Defensive Line; Talan Reider, Outside Linebacker; Nate Krieger, Middle Linebacker; Sam Jimenez, Defensive Back.

Beam was named Coach of the year, an honor he referred to as “Coaching Staff of the Year” honors for Escalon.

The Second Team All-League Selections for Escalon were: Anthony Jones, Offensive Line; Ben Lora, Offensive Line; Nico Franzia, Defensive End; Derek Silva, Defensive Back; Jamin Miller, Linebacker; Carson Medina, Outside Linebacker.

And with this year’s Cougars putting together an overall record of 12-2, Beam said it is a squad that has etched its place in history, as they claimed both TVL and Section titles and again represented EHS in the NorCals.