Rolling out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, Escalon’s varsity football team stayed a few steps ahead of their opponent all night, crafting a season opening victory on Friday, Aug. 22. The final score was 35-14, as the host Cougars defeated visiting Rodriguez out of Fairfield in the first-ever meeting between the teams.

“Our opening drive was methodical,” head coach Andrew Beam said of the Cougars losing the toss and Rodriguez deferring, opting to give Escalon the opening kickoff. It was almost an onside kick so Escalon got good field position to start and they made the most of it.

“We capped it with a three-yard touchdown run by Dylan Ball and Ricardo Felix Chavez put through the extra point,” Beam explained. “Then towards the end of the first quarter, Dylan scored again, this time on a 17-yard run, with Brody Abbott kicking the extra point.”

The opening quarter couldn’t have been scripted any better. Coming off a very un-Escalon like 6-6 season last year, Beam said the team needed to put that record behind them and start fresh, eager for a win to shake off any lingering effects of last year.

“It was a really nice first quarter; we had 127 yards of offense,” Beam said.

Rodriguez countered with a 15-yard touchdown run by their quarterback in the second quarter and the kick was good, getting the visiting Mustangs to within 14-7.

But quarterback Logan Huebner was able to use several weapons on the night and the third Cougar touchdown also came from Ball, taking the handoff and going 26 yards into the end zone. Chavez tacked on the extra point for a 21-7 lead.

The teams went into the locker room with the Cougars holding the two-score advantage, looking to come out strong in the second half.

Neither team got on the board in the third and Escalon had its only punt of the game in that third quarter.

In the fourth, it was senior Luca Cerasi grabbing the first touchdown reception of his high school career.

“The catch … I’ve never had a touchdown in tackle football so when Beam told me to go out for that play all I could think of was catch that ball, I’m going to catch that ball, I’m coming down with it, I’m going to get a touchdown for the team,” Cerasi explained. “When I had the ball in my hands it was just like, wow, I didn’t know what to do; I just started running around everywhere.”

The excitement of his touchdown reception was just one part of a satisfying game, Cerasi said.

“I think it’s exactly what we’ve been working for,” the senior explained of the team wanting to get a win to kick off the season on a positive note, putting in plenty of time in the weight room to get stronger. “Obviously the hard work is paying off.”

Beam said the catch was a fun one to watch.

“It was an 11-yard catch, a pass from Logan to Luca on a fourth down play; Luca went up and got it and got that toe down in the corner of the end zone,” Beam said.

The kick was good by Abbott to put the Cougars up by three touchdowns, 28-7.

Rodriguez was able to cash in on a blown coverage on defense, a little breakdown in communication, Beam said, that allowed them to close the gap to 28-14.

But not long after, the final score of the night came on a quick cut and run counter by Carter Yates, good for 57 yards to the house. Chavez put the extra point through for the 35-14 final.

“It feels amazing,” senior quarterback Logan Huebner admitted of taking down a tough Rodriguez team. “We’ve been putting in a lot of work, in the weight room and doing speed training, we finally got to see it pay off, it was a fun game tonight.”

And while the offense was clicking, sophomore Yates said there were solid efforts on both sides.

“I feel like our defense was the best, flying around the ball and getting tackles,” Yates said. He also was glad to contribute to the scoring, taking advantage of the open field he saw ahead of him on the final touchdown run.

Beam said he felt the team played pretty clean, not hurting themselves with procedural penalties. They did have an interception by Ben Ferreira called back on what refs termed a late hit on the quarterback – who was still in the pocket – and a Chase Cummings touchdown run was called back on a holding penalty away from the play.

“Two seniors get two big plays taken away,” the coach said. “But we didn’t turn the ball over, we didn’t create a lot of self-inflicted penalties, I felt pretty good about the way things went.”

Conner McDowell had six tackles on defense, center Lorenzo Teixeira had four tackles and a sack. Rylan Koops and Cole Ratkiewicz each had a sack as well.

“Our defensive backs played really well, they all did an outstanding job,” Beam said. “Offensively, we had a lot of balance, we had several guys with between six and 11 carries each.”

Ball paced the effort, eight carries for 106 yards and three touchdowns, Yates had six carries for 83 yards and a touchdown. Ben Gonzalez had 11 carries for 41 yards and Jeremy Grivette had eight carries for 24 yards. Huebner was 6-for-9 for 54 yards and had a touchdown pass.

Escalon also rushed for 312 yards to record 366 total yards. Rodriguez had 96 yards rushing, 87 passing for 183 total yards.

“It felt good, the energy on the sidelines, the energy after the game … it was like a weight was lifted off their shoulders,” Beam said of his team notching the win.

Now, they will head out on the road to face off with Chavez of Stockton, with a game time of 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29.