It shouldn’t have been a nailbiter.

But two touchdowns in the final minute and a half of Friday night’s road game by the host team put it in that category.

Escalon’s varsity Cougars were seemingly in command, with a 20-0 lead, with less than two minutes to go. But a late turnover gave the host Golden Valley Cougars new life and they breathed in as much as they could. Refusing to go down easy, Golden Valley scored twice in that final couple of minutes, leaving the scoreboard at 20-14 in Escalon’s favor.

“We subbed out the majority of the starters and we were going to take a knee and go home,” head coach Andrew Beam said. “But then we turned the ball over … just not the way you like to end a game.”

Escalon’s first drive of the contest – after Golden Valley won the toss and deferred – covered 80 yards on 13 plays and resulted in an 18-yard touchdown pass from Donovan Rozevink to Sam Jimenez. The extra point attempt went awry after an issue with the kicking tee and hit the right goalpost, deflecting away to give Escalon a 6-0 lead in the first quarter. Also scoring on the night were Jamin Miller, pulling in an 18-yard pass from Rozevink, and Jimenez got the final touchdown, a 5-yard pass from Rozevink. The 2-point conversion attempt failed on both those scores, making it 18-0 Escalon.

Nico Franzia and Talan Reider combined on a late safety to put the Cougars’ score at 20 and that held up until the late strikes by Golden Valley.

A pick-six by Talan Reider in the second quarter was returned 70 yards, but called back on a penalty, as the Cougars hurt themselves with 10 penalties on the night.

“Put it down to nervousness, jitters, a lot of new starters and inexperience,” Beam summed up about the game. “But we got a win at the end of the day.”

Escalon had 322 total yards of offense to Golden Valley’s 138; Reider had an interception, Ryan Lewis and Jamin Miller each had a sack. Miller had eight tackles, Nate Krieger had six and Noah Gutierrez added five tackles.

Jimenez had four catches for 72 yards, Josh Graham had 15 carries for 111 yards. Rozevink was 8-for-14 for 129 yards and three touchdowns.

JV/Freshmen

For the JV team, it was a shutout win on Friday night. Scores came on a first quarter 6-yard touchdown pass from Ethan Butler to Ben Ferreira and the point after sent through by Isaac Patino. In the second quarter, Ferreira rushed the ball in from 6 yards out, Patino’s PAT was good for a 14-0 edge. Ben Gonzalez scored on a 17-yard rushing play in the fourth quarter with the point after good by Patino for the 21-0 victory.

“We really controlled this game from start to finish on both sides of the ball,” said JV coach Brant Rose. “They (Golden Valley) came out with a physical running game plan, but as the game went on our running game began to wear on them. Great win to start the season.”

The freshmen were on the road at Golden Valley on Thursday and fell by an 8-6 final, Noah Dooley getting into the end zone for the young squad on a rushing touchdown in the third quarter.