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Season Wraps With Win For JV Gridders
1106 JV Offense
JV player Hunter Calton, 24, holds off the Modesto Christian defender in Friday night action. The JV team took a 29-18 win off the field. Marg Jackson/The Times

Leading 14-12 after one quarter, Escalon outscored Modesto Christian 15-6 over the next three quarters to take a 29-18 win off the field in Friday night JV football action.

“I’m proud of the kids,” said coach Randy Northcutt, whose team ends 5-4 overall, 6-4 counting a forfeit win against Riverbank, which dropped its JV program earlier this season. “Modesto Christian had some good players, they just didn’t have the numbers.”

Hunter Calton had a 27-yard run to get Escalon on the board first, followed by a David Martinez kick. But Modesto Christian returned the kickoff 99 yards for a score. They went for two but were denied. Dustin Lawrence then scored on a 9-yard run with the kick good, MC countered with a 76-yard run and this time tried the kick, which was no good. That made it 14-12 after the first quarter.

Second quarter scoring saw Escalon get a 10-yard run from Calton, kick good by Martinez and the teams traded scores in the fourth quarter. Lawrence went in on a 1-yard run for the score and then added the 2-point conversion; MC got a 65-yard pass play for the touchdown, the 2-point conversion failed for the 29-18 final.

Calton had nine carries for 110 yards in the win, Lawrence had 17 rushes for 105 yards and went over 1,000 yards rushing for the season.

Trenton Busch added four carries for 12 yards, Chris Pilcher had six carries for 79 yards and the defensive leaders were Marc Camarena with a fumble recovery and leading in tackles; Joey Dutra had a fumble recovery, with two sacks each from Wyatt Cockrell, Calton and Pilcher.

The JV Cougars had a total of 339 yards of offense on the night, Modesto Christian had 294.

Northcutt said though his team took four losses, it was by a combined total of 17 points, so they were in every contest. JV players called up to varsity include Dustin Lawrence, Hunter Calton, Chris Pilcher, Timmy Wallace, Logan Widmer and Daniel Gonzales.