A shutout win for Escalon’s junior varsity football boys on the gridiron Friday built on the success of the freshmen, who got past a tough Tokay squad on the road Thursday.
Windsor fell victim to a firing-on-all-cylinders JV team at Engel Field on Sept. 2, as the young Cougars were 41-0 victors.
It was 7-0 after one quarter with a 10-yard pass from Logan Huebner to Sam Jimenez, Huebner added the extra point kick as well.
In the second quarter, Kyrin Barajas had a 1-yard touchdown run; the point after was blocked to make it 13-0. Escalon went into halftime up by a 19-0 score, converting on a 2-yard pass from Huebner to Ben Gonzalez to round out the second quarter scoring. The 2-point attempt was no good.
Still, heading into the locker room with the 19-point advantage put the team in good position for the second half.
“We dominated all three phases of this game: offense, defense, and special teams,” said head coach Brant Rose. “Can’t emphasize enough how our special teams play and our defense controlled the game, which gave our offense really short fields to work with each possession.”
Third quarter saw an 8-yard rushing touchdown from Dominic Arauza and Huebner took in the 2-point conversion to make it a 27-0 lead. Arauza scored later in the third on another 8-yard run, the point after was good for a 34-0 advantage. Putting the final touchdown in the books was Daniel Marrufo on a 5-yard run and the point after was good to clinch the 41-0 win.
“Our defensive line dominated, holding Windsor’s offensive to negative total yards,” added Rose.
FRESHMEN
Traveling to Tokay High School in Lodi on Thursday, Sept. 1, the freshmen came home with a 21-12 win.
“They were 1-1 coming in to the game, the same as us, so we knew we had a challenge,” said head coach Joey Costa. “We continued to play great on the defensive side of the ball, only giving up the two touchdowns but the important thing was we held them out of the end zone on both two-point conversions.”
Escalon’s defensive standouts were Co Northcutt, who had an interception at the end of the game, along with Jeremey Grivette, Beau Morgan, Logan Wentzell, Ben Ferreira and Lorenzo Teixeira.
“The defense keeps getting better each week and plays extremely physical,” noted Costa. “Offense had a better game this week. We scored three times and also ran the ball much better.”
It was Northcutt who got the scoring going, converting on a nice touchdown run. The second score came on a pass from Donovan Martinez to Ben Ferreira, and the scoring was capped with off with a short touchdown run by fullback Jeremey Grivette.
“We had a big pass play mid- to late-third quarter from Donovan Martinez to Beau Morgan on the pop pass that set up the last score when things had stalled a bit, it was a big momentum swing,” Costa said. “I would estimate it was around a 50- to 55-yard play as he (Morgan) was brought down on the 6-yard line.”
Also getting kudos for their Thursday night effort were members of the special teams for the frosh squad.
“They were solid all game,” Costa said. “Bryce Vallee continues to be excellent on our extra points as he was three-for-three and I believe is now seven-for-eight on the season and was also a big difference in this game as late it was a two score game. Very proud of the boys for bouncing back and getting the win.”
