The 2024 football season for the Escalon Cougars officially gets underway Friday, Aug. 23. The varsity and JV teams will be on the road, facing off with a formidable foe to kick off the preseason schedule, matching up with the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II Vacaville Bulldogs.

Playing in the Monticello Empire League, the recent rankings for the Bulldogs had them at number 25 in the Sac-Joaquin Section and number nine in D-II.

Escalon tuned up for the contest with a scrimmage this past Friday night, hosting Gregori at Engel Field on Aug. 16.

“The scrimmage went well for all three levels,” Escalon varsity head coach Andrew Beam said of the night on the gridiron. “The freshmen looked farther along than they ever have, the JV team has a good combination of six freshmen mixed in with their sophomore group.”

Beam said he was also pleased overall with what he saw from the varsity squad.

“The varsity scrimmage was a good test for all our new players. There were many first-time varsity athletes getting a taste of what this game is played like at this level and what we expect from them,” the coach said. “I thought Logan Huebner, Chase Cummings, Frank Rodriguez, Noah Gutierrez, and Ryan Lewis all played very well. Donovan Martinez had two really nice touchdown passes to lead the second offensive unit at quarterback.”

Escalon comes in to the match against the Bulldogs with a number 24 ranking in the Sac-Joaquin Section and are at number 4 in Division IV.

“Big test this Friday at Vacaville. Longest road trip of the year, but we are a group that is used to traveling for big games,” Beam explained. “We will see how fast our youth and inexperience can be ready for playing a Division 2 school on the road.”

Game times are 5:15 p.m. for the JV team and 7:30 p.m. for the varsity.

Freshmen are scheduled to play at Central Catholic on Thursday night, Aug. 22 at 6 p.m.

In addition to the Friday night football scrimmage, all three levels of Escalon volleyball were in action Saturday, Aug. 17. The girls traveled to Golden Valley High School in Merced for the annual GEBO scrimmage.

“We had three timed matches against Golden Valley, Beyer and Oakdale,” explained varsity head coach Shay Beam. “Overall, all three levels played very well and it was nice to be able to scrimmage and work out some kinks before preseason starts in the next week.”

The coach added that nine players are returning to the varsity from last year’s team.

“We are getting better with every practice and are excited to start the season,” Beam said.