Escalon High School senior football players, cheerleaders and band members will all get recognized on Friday night, Nov. 1 as the varsity football team hosts Orestimba in the regular season finale.

Head coach Andrew Beam said the senior members of the varsity football team will be honored prior to kick-off; recognition for the senior cheerleaders and members of the EHS band will be done at halftime of the varsity game.

“To get playoff eligible was huge,” Beam noted of Escalon’s big road win this past Friday, Oct. 25 at Ripon.

The victory got them to a 4-5 overall mark; four wins is the benchmark to make the postseason.

Now, Beam said, the team needs to be focused and make sure they get the win for Senior Night.

“We’re looking to get ourselves into a better playoff seeding situation,” the coach said.

Orestimba is coming off a hard fought 21-17 win over Ripon Christian in their Oct. 25 game, while Escalon defeated host Ripon, 23-14.

“We might be looking at a six or seven seed and a possible home game if we get the win,” Beam said.

Kickoff for varsity will be about 7 pm. Friday.

Meanwhile, the players on the field who battled to the win against Ripon agreed it was one of the most satisfying of the season.

“It feels really good, we get to go to playoffs now,” said senior Cruz Snow. “And we wanted to beat Ripon, our linemen definitely stepped up like we needed to, outside backers, middle backers.”

He also said a field goal by kicker Ricardo Chavez to give Escalon the lead early in the fourth quarter was the major turning point in the contest.

“Amazing, he’s doing good, I’m proud of him,” Snow said.

For fellow senior Noah Gutierrez, it was a similar feeling and a night he won’t forget, as he had a catch while on offense.

“It’s amazing, you know I’ve always been part of blocking but it was cool to get the catch, you don’t expect it but it’s kind of awesome,” Gutierrez said.

He noted that the team seems to be coming together at the right time.

“The past couple of weeks, the energy has been different, we’ve been working together more, it’s been really meshing and I think that’s good for the team, I think we’re on a roll because of it,” he explained.

Noting that it’s the first time the team has had back-to-back wins this season, beating Ripon Christian and Ripon, Gutierrez said they are now going for three in a row when they take on Orestimba.

“I just want to continue this momentum … I think we’re a team that moves off momentum,” he said.

Figuring into the win with a touchdown catch and some tough defense, junior Chase Cummings also wants to see the team keep moving forward in a positive way.

“We’ve got to clean stuff up, we’re going to clean it up next week, come out harder and I’m ecstatic right now,” Cummings said after getting the road win at Ripon. “Finally finding our identity, 100 percent; before we felt like just a team of individuals and now we’re really meshing and there’s nothing better than that.”

Putting the go-ahead field goal through the uprights was junior Ricardo Chavez, a soccer player who was convinced to join football this season.

“Feels good, keeping the team up, keeping a win streak against Ripon, it means a lot,” Chavez said.

Junior quarterback Logan Huebner scored the final touchdown of the night against Ripon on a one-yard plunge but said much of the work was done before that, including a fumble recovery by the defense and some other big plays that swung the momentum Escalon’s way.

“Our defense just really stepped up,” Huebner said, adding that the team’s ability to capitalize on the second half kickoff was also crucial. “We honestly got a good halftime speech by our coach that fired us up; we knew we had to come out here and put up a score or else it would be a tough comeback and we just executed.”

Fellow junior Luca Cerasi made his presence felt with some batted away passes against the host Indians and a handful of tackles as well.

“It feels great, we’re just coming to practice every week and just grinding,” said Cerasi, who said the Cougars want to go deep into the playoffs. “For next week we just have to stay strong. The last few weeks, I mean, we finally looked at what our future could be and it was either our season keeps going or it’s going to come to an end so that started last week and it has continued, we need that push.”

Junior Daniel Marrufo had a standout game on defense and though he narrowly missed an interception – the ball hit his midsection but he couldn’t quite gather it in – he did pick up the fumble recovery in the second half that proved to be a key in the victory.

“Just redeeming myself felt really good; I was really mad about that, dropping that first one,” Marrufo admitted. “I don’t like losing; we haven’t had the best record … but hopefully this winning streak can move on to Orestimba and the playoffs. I feel like the team is starting to get on a little roll, on a nice little momentum swing.”

Senior team captain Ryan Lewis forced the fumble that Marrufo picked up and is glad to see the team settling in, now that the postseason is looming.

“It feels great, especially during halftime (in Ripon) when we were down 14-7, coach Beam gave a speech that changed the whole game; we went out there and we did not give up another point,” Lewis explained. “We just have to keep the momentum from this game into the next game and the playoffs.”