Scoring on their first possession of the night, Escalon took the early 7-0 lead against visiting Hughson and never looked back.

They had a 10-0 lead after the first quarter and went up 17-7 at the half in the Friday, Oct. 9 game at Engel Field.

Hughson scratched back in the third to trim the lead to 17-14 but that was as close as they would get, with Escalon scoring two more touchdowns to take the contest by a 31-14 final.

After falling in a tough loss on the road at Hilmar on Oct. 2, head coach Andrew Beam said the concern was how the team would come back from that defeat.

“It took me a long time to get rid of last week’s loss,” Beam admitted.

It has been an emotional roller coaster of sorts for the varsity squad, getting a big win over Ripon Christian for Homecoming, buoyed by that victory, then taking the gut punch as Hilmar scored with time winding down in the fourth quarter to send Escalon to a loss.

But with Hughson winning the toss and opting to kick off, Escalon got in the end zone quickly on Friday, quarterback Archer Sanders going in from near midfield on a rushing touchdown, Brody Abbott adding the point after to stake the Cougars to a 7-0 lead.

A field goal by Abbott with about five minutes to play in the opening quarter gave Escalon a 10-0 advantage, the defense providing that opportunity. Conner McDowell stripped the ball from the Hughson runner and Ethan Butler recovered the fumble to get Escalon in position to score.

“We’ve been waiting for this team to come in with a level of confidence and swagger, to know they could win the big game,” Beam said. “In five of our six games prior to this one, there was doubt in our body language, a little bit of hesitation.”

That changed on Friday night.

“We believe,” Beam said. “We were able to play with confidence.”

Key was also hassling Hughson’s quarterback, Hudson Baldwin, who was under pressure throughout the contest, completing 8-of-16 passes but not recording a touchdown toss. He was sacked four times, with Ethan Butler, Leo Marrufo, Curtis Thomas and Ryan Huebner all recording a sack.

Hughson scored on the first play of the second quarter to make it 10-7 but Escalon answered back as Sanders found Jake Ferreira with a 24-yard touchdown pass and Abbott added the extra point to put the Cougars up 17-7.

Later in the second quarter, Huebner got his sack to cut short a Hughson drive and Ferreira had a late interception that allowed Escalon to get off the field with the 10-point lead.

Second half action saw Hughson get a fumble recovery that they eventually turned into a touchdown to make it a17-14 contest. With some hard runs churning up the yardage by Dylan Ball, the handoff then went to Val Garcia for a 21-yard touchdown run and the point after by Abbott late in the third to put the Cougars up by a 24-14 score.

A punt return by Ball in the fourth quarter would seal the win, going on a 70-yard rumble down the field, Abbott adding the extra point for the 31-14 final.

“We saw our defense pin their ears back and go, they just had that confidence that we could play with anybody,” Beam pointed out.

He said containing the highly touted, likely Division 1 recruit quarterback for the Huskies set the stage, and the offense for Escalon was just as prepared for the game as the defense.

“Coach Kimble and Coach Cowan spent a lot of extra hours in the classroom with the offense, going over film,” Beam said. “We rushed for 319 yards and even against a stacked box, we had big run after big run.”

For the players, it was almost as if the last-minute loss to Hilmar served as the turning point, when they knew collectively what needed to be done.

“We didn’t have our best game (against Hilmar) so we had to come back this week harder, we knew we needed this win,” said junior Leo Marrufo. “We just played our game and gave it to them, you know, we had to come out and do our best.”

And in between the various messages going around on social media, junior Val Garcia said the Cougars stayed focused on the task at hand.

“It feels amazing, I appreciate everyone and they did their jobs right,” he said of both the offense and defense putting together strong efforts on Friday night. “That’s how we won; we won as a team and that’s what’s important about this game. This game brought our spirits up from that tough loss and I really think that this game was truly amazing for all of us.”

Senior Ethan Butler, a team captain, said the desire to win was two-fold; coming back strong from last week’s loss to Hilmar and gaining a little revenge for last year’s loss to Hughson.

“That loss last week definitely played a big part, we had to bounce back from that because we shouldn’t have lost that game,” he said. “We also had last year’s game (against Hughson) in our pocket, carrying that around, I wanted my get back this year.”

The get back came in the form of a big win, and fellow senior and team captain Caleb Boatman said Escalon knows many teams see their game with the Cougars as a rivalry game.

“We’re on Engel Field,” he said, adding that the Cougars have to defend their territory.

And though the next game is on the road – at Ripon – he said there won’t be any letdown.

“Really just better practices, make sure we spend good time in the classroom, working on film, we have to have tunnel vision,” Boatman said of getting ready to take on the Indians.

Junior DJ Bass made his presence felt, batting down a pass and getting in on some defensive stops.

“I had to pick it up in the second half but it feels great winning this game,” he said, adding that the Cougars definitely felt the attitude Hughson came in with and wanted to send them home with a little less swagger than they brought with them.

Fellow junior Ryan Huebner agreed that the team came together after losing to Hilmar and knew they had to get past Hughson.

“Coming off a loss in a game we feel like we should have won, we just had that drive throughout the whole week and we knew this is probably going to be one of the deciding games in the TVL because Hughson is a good team. But it was a really big win for us; we’ve got to win at Engel Field,” Huebner said. “This week, we need to practice clean so we can play clean in the game and just have that drive and will to win.”

Defensively, Conner McDowell had nine tackles and a strip forced fumble, Marrufo had six tackles and a sack, Ball had six tackles, with additional sacks by Butler, Huebner and Thomas. Butler had a fumble recovery and Ferreira had an interception.

Bass, Kolton Kjellberg and Trey Herrera also brought pressure the entire night, said Beam.

Offensively, Ball had 13 carries for 161 yards and a punt return for 70 yards and a touchdown. Sanders had nine carries for 101 yards and a touchdown. Ferreira had one catch for 24 yards and a touchdown, Garcia had a rushing touchdown, Abbott added a field goal and four extra points, perfect on the night.

“It was a very dominant win but we still have things to clean up,” Beam said. “I’m super proud of how the kids responded after a tough loss and this team is as good as anybody in this league.”

Escalon stands at 4-3 overall, 2-1 in the TVL as they prepare for the next battle.

Beam is hoping for good crowd support, not only in nearby Ripon for the Oct. 16 game, but again on Oct. 30, when the Cougars will host Sonora at Engel Field. The team has their bye week on Oct. 23.