Tied at the half, the visiting Escalon JV Cougars finally found their game in the third quarter and outdistanced host Orestimba on the football field Friday night. The JV boys earned a 33-14 win over the Warriors, pouring on 19 points in the final quarter to seal the win.

Orestimba took the lead in the first quarter on a 4-yard run, kick good, and Escalon answered back in the second on a 1-yard run by quarterback Dylan Azevedo, kick good by David Martinez. That made it a 7-7 game at the half and the teams traded touchdowns in the third quarter to head into the fourth tied at 14-all.

Escalon went up 14-7 with a 48-yard run from Hunter Calton to open the second half, kick by Martinez, only to see Orestimba answer back on a 78-yard run with the kick good.

“We didn’t really play well in the first half,” said coach Randy Northcutt. “It changed in the second half, in the third quarter we started controlling the game, the score wasn’t saying that, but we were in control.”

The Cougars had only 12 rushing attempts in the first half, nearly doubling it in the second half to end with 35 rushing plays for 299 yards. Orestimba had 32 rushing plays for 94 yards.

Through the air, the Warriors hit on 4 of 6 pass attempts for 51 yards; Escalon hit 2 of 5 for 19 yards and an interception.

Each team had six first downs on the night, Orestimba had a total of 213 yards of offense with special teams figured in, Escalon had 365.

Fourth quarter scoring for the Cougars, 19 points total to give them the 33-14 win, came on a 3-yard run by Dustin Lawrence (kick failed), a 93-yard run by Hunter Calton (2-point attempt failed) and a 25-yard run by Calton with the kick good.

“Calton rushed five times for 184 yards and had one reception for two yards, plus two kickoff returns for 46 yards, a total of 232 yards,” Northcutt said of the offensive leader.

Chris Pilcher added one catch for 17 yards and 10 carries for 55 yards. Dustin Lawrence had 16 carries for 70 yards.

“Trenton Busch led the team on defense with eight tackles and one sack,” said Northcutt. “Joey Dutra had a fumble recovery, Chris Pilcher had a fumble recovery and a sack, Daniel Gonzales had a sack.”

The coach also pointed to the effort of the offensive line, which turned it up a notch in the second half.

“It took a while but we came back and took care of it,” Northcutt said of getting the win.

The team has its bye week in league this week, then goes to Hilmar on Friday, Oct. 25.