There are more questions than answers right now for the Escalon varsity football Cougars.
Heading out on the road after their bye week, the squad held its own fate in its hands, looking to take control of its destiny with a win at Ripon Christian.
But the host Knights – fielding one of their most complete and talented teams in years – had other ideas. They roughed up the Cougars and took a decisive 38-8 win off the field on Friday night, Oct. 17.
“When you turn over the ball that many times you’re never going to win,” head coach Andrew Beam said of the first half in which Escalon lost a fumble and had two passes picked off. “It just seems like what can go wrong, is going wrong.”
Ripon Christian built up a 13-0 lead in the first half, taking advantage of the Cougar miscues.
Even at the end of the half, the Cougars were driving and got into the red zone with about two minutes left. But back-to-back penalties pushed them back and they were unable to convert.
“I credit Ripon Christian, they played very well and took care of the ball,” Beam said.
The teams were scoreless in the first quarter; Ripon Christian scored on an 18-yard run with the point after kick good and a 56-yard run, missed point after, in the second quarter to go up 13-0 at the half.
Beam said his team still was in good position, but needed a stop of the Knights to start the third quarter, as the host squad took the second half kickoff.
Again, it did not go according to plan.
“Ripon Christian rushed for 12 straight plays and scored on a two-yard run and added the two-point conversion,” Beam said of the Knights going up 21-0 in the third quarter. They then added a field goal to extend the lead to 24-0 before Escalon got on the board. It was a three-yard touchdown toss from Logan Huebner to Mason Haverkamp for the score, then Huebner took in the two-point conversion to trim the lead to 24-8.
The Knights, however, would go on to score two more unanswered touchdowns and put the game away, improving to 3-1 in the Trans-Valley League while Escalon stands at 1-3.
Beam said it has been a tough season in many ways, not the least of which was losing several key senior leaders to injury early on.
“I feel like we’ve never recovered,” the coach admitted.
Among those lost for the season early in the campaign was senior and team captain Rylan Koops.
“It’s hard being on the sideline because you’re not in that game … all you can do really is just motivate, just try to get guys on the sidelines, coming off, you’ve got to talk with them, got to help them get their blocks, help them figure out what they’re doing because we have a lot of young players,” Koops explained. “We’ve got to excel in these next two games.”
Dylan Ball had nine carries for 104 yards to pace the offensive attack; Huebner had 128 total yards, rushing and passing. Ethan Butler had 11 tackles to lead the defense.
“We need guys to step up, including myself,” senior quarterback and team captain Huebner said of preparing for their final two league contests. “We just need to come to practice ready, with energy, be really focused.”
Fellow captain Lorenzo Teixeira said the team will take lessons from the game they can put into action.
“You learn from tonight, you go back to the drawing board, fix the mistakes and try to get better starts, with myself on the O-line, it starts with the O-line and we’ve just go to be better,” Teixeira said.
Despite the loss, the game featured the first career varsity touchdown reception for senior Mason Haverkamp.
“I was really nervous but really excited once I caught that ball,” Haverkamp admitted.
He also said with the loss, it paints a clear picture of what the team needs to do.
“We’ve just got to stop goofing around … we’ve got to stop being overly confident and we’ve got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot,” Haverkamp said.
Next up for the Cougars, a game that will pit them against longtime rival Ripon. The game will be at Engel Field and if the Cougars want to get into the playoffs – as opposed to a one-and-done bowl game, this is a must win.
“Ripon is big and fast; they are coming off a loss to Sonora,” Beam said. “If we don’t protect the football, we won’t win. This is a rivalry game; you throw the records out the window. This is the perfect ‘get right’ game and I hope that motivates them.”
Kickoff Friday night, Oct. 24 at Engel Field is scheduled for 7 p.m.
JV/Freshmen
The final was 36-21 in favor of Escalon, as the JV Cougars continued their strong run through the TVL this season on Oct. 17. First quarter scoring was on a six-yard rushing touchdown from Val Garcia and the Juan Pablo De Luna kick was good, 7-0 Escalon. They made it 14-0 in the second with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Archer Sanders to Trevor Jansen and DeLuna added the kick. A 21-yard pass from Sanders to Dylan Machado, kick good, make it 21-0 for Escalon. Ripon Christian got on the board late to trim the lead to 21-7 at the half.
In the third quarter, it was another RC touchdown, but the extra point was no good, trimming the lead to 21-13.
Carter Cummings went in on a three-yard rushing touchdown and Machado took in the two-point conversion to increase the Escalon lead to 29-13. Machado added another score on a 21-yard run, De Luna’s kick was good to give Escalon a 36-13 lead.
Ripon Christian scored a touchdown in the fourth and added the two-point conversion for the 36-21 final.
“Our offensive performance is what won the game,” said head coach Brant Rose. “We controlled the ball and did not have any turnovers during the game. We needed this stellar offensive performance, because RC has a difficult offense to stop.”
Defensively, Ryan Huebner recovered a fumble and Trevor Jansen and Ethan Morrill both had interceptions.
The JV faces off on Oct. 24 with undefeated Ripon; Escalon has one loss in TVL play.
Notching its first win of the season, Escalon’s freshmen played on the road at Lodi and took a 28-13 victory on Oct. 16.
“This was the best game we played all year, and everybody had time to make plays,” head coach Nate Caton said. “Lodi’s QB is a great player and gave us problems, but we managed well in the second half to prevent them from scoring more points.”
Four different players scored for Escalon, with Lucas Trejo, Ty Caton and John Van Dyk all running one in. Quarterback Trenton Barth connected with tight end Jaxon DeGruy for the other touchdown. Kicker Emmanuel Calderon-Hernandez made all of the point after kicks.
“All of our backs played great, including Adam Cordeiro who was responsible for some big plays, especially a third and long conversion before half,” Caton said.
That play led to the passing touchdown.
Defensively, Kevin Rocha recovered a fumble and Ty Caton had an interception.
“Our guys rallied each other and were fired up during the entire game,” added the coach. “We had great energy on the sidelines.”
The freshmen will be on the road at Ripon on Thursday, Oct. 23.
