In a fitting final regular season game at Escalon High School, the margin of victory was big and there was an air of celebration.

The varsity football Cougars thumped Orestimba, 41-14 on Friday night, Nov. 1, on an evening that also included recognition of senior varsity football players, varsity cheerleaders and senior class band and choir members who contribute to the Friday night festivities.

Players were announced and honored prior to kickoff; recognition of the senior cheerleaders and musicians came at halftime of the varsity game.

“I’ve been coordinating a lot with the cheer coach this year and she was able to help out with allowing us to also be honored on Senior Night,” music teacher Ashley Crow said of having the band and choir members saluted. “I mean, we’re at all the home games so it makes sense that we’re also honored. I want it to be an every year thing.”

The win, with rain starting to fall toward the end of the game, ushered November football into Engel Field in style.

And it will continue this week, as Escalon hosts Fairfield in the opening round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4 playoffs. Game time is 7 p.m., Nov. 8. Gates will open at 6:15 p.m., with GoFan entry only.

“We will host the Fairfield Falcons; they finished 5-5 and were 4-1 in the Greater Sacramento League,” Escalon head coach Andrew Beam said. “They like to spread it out, go shotgun, spread the ball around.”

Escalon (4-2 TVL, 5-5 overall) earned the number five seed, Fairfield comes in at number 12 with the winner of the Nov. 8 game moving on to face off against number 4 Placer, on the road, Nov. 15. Placer has a first round bye.

“I always like playing new teams,” Beam said of facing Fairfield.

Energized by the season finale victory, several Cougar players were looking forward to continuing their run in the postseason.

“It felt good, everybody got their chance; it was just amazing,” senior Nathan Belletto said of the team shutting out Orestimba in the second half, building on a 22-14 lead to put the game away and secure a solid seed in the postseason. “The speeches during halftime (from coaches) just get me fired up.”

Junior Donovan Martinez, who spent several games under center when starting quarterback Logan Huebner went down with an injury, was able to pull in a touchdown pass from Huebner against the Orestimba Warriors.

“It felt really good to be able to make the play and celebrate with my guys in the end zone,” Martinez explained. “Logan is back, we’re so grateful to have him back and I’m just trying to be supportive out there.”

Senior Alex Jones has enjoyed putting in the hard work and making some hits on the field and said the team as a whole has made some strides late in the regular season campaign.

“We’ve come a long way, definitely, we were always there, we just couldn’t find our identity,” Jones said of the earlier season struggles. “It’s just great to have one now and we’re looking forward to many more games.”

Junior quarterback Huebner had another strong game, passing for three touchdowns and scoring two on the ground himself. But it took some tough halftime talk from coaches to get the team on track, he admitted, as Orestimba trimmed the lead to 22-14 in the closing minutes of the first half.

“Again, we got a really good halftime speech from our coach; everybody was pumped up because they knew if we wanted to win, we had to come out, get a score and get a stop and all the seniors got hyped up because they knew it could possibly be their last home game,” Huebner said.

That mentality served the entire team well throughout the second half, as the host Cougars took control.

“Everybody just came out with the fire and we put it on them,” Huebner said.

He pointed to a crucial interception by teammate Dom Arauza as being a turning point, allowing Escalon to take all of Orestimba’s momentum away.

“Luckily the ball was slightly underthrown so I was able to catch up to it,” Arauza, a senior, said of his interception, even though he had to come all the way across the field for it. “Then I just kept running; I almost returned it, almost. Coming out of the half, we had a bad second quarter; things started going bad but that (interception) just changed the momentum and we started getting things going after that.”

Huebner said he feels the win has the Cougars poised for the postseason.

“We’re ready for anybody, especially if it’s at home because I know nobody wants to come and play us at home in playoffs because we’re just a different breed in playoffs so we’ll see how it goes,” Huebner noted.

Senior Carson Medina said the best part of the game was wearing down their opponent in the second half, making sure Orestimba couldn’t get into the end zone.

“It’s a domino effect, leads to a good game, like that third and fourth quarter we had,” Medina said. “I’m looking forward to proving that we’re still a really good playoff team and we know we can make a run. We’ve got to prove it to everyone but I know we have it in us, I’m happy we get the chance to prove it to people.”