As the fall sports season continues, Escalon teams in several arenas have put together some solid efforts. Here is a look at recent action for the Lady Cougar flag football, volleyball and golf teams.
Flag football
Against Ripon, it was a 38-6 win for the varsity Lady Cougars, taking the Oct. 7 contest in convincing fashion. Mia Arteaga had an interception and paced the defense; Helena Arroyo added an interception for the pick six to seal the deal.
Rebecca Wampler rushed for 70 yards and had two rushing touchdowns while Reagan Baker ran hard and had 64 yards on the ground.
Wednesday, the girls went to Sonora and kept the momentum going, coming away with a 24-6 victory.
Escalon scored on their opening drive, Ari Velasco finding Jasmine Barron for the passing TD. Two more touchdowns in the second half gave Escalon some breathing room, especially with Sonora driving late and making it a one score game. Velasco jumped a route and had an interception for the touchdown that put the varsity girls up by two scores and carried them to the win. Soraya Aguayo and Yesenia Marsellis had an interception apiece and Rachelle Barker had seven flag pulls.
“Very proud of the girls for taking care of business this last week and winning games they are supposed to win,” said coach Steve Largent. “That is not an easy thing to do in this game and it is a great testament to this team who have rallied together and are starting to believe.”
The JV girls continue to impress, with a 32-0 win over Ripon to improve to 13-2 overall and 4-0 through the first round of TVL play.
Volleyball
Rebounding from a hard-fought loss in the first match of the week, Escalon’s varsity Lady Cougars got a win on the home court Thursday. They played Hilmar on Tuesday, taking them to four but losing 3-1. Hilmar is ranked second in the TVL; Escalon won the first set 25-20 but then fell in the next three, 16-25, 22-25, 12-25.
“Thursday, we faced Hughson for the second time and walked away with a win, 25-21, 25-19, 22-25 and 25-12,” said head coach Shay Beam. “We lost the first go around against the Huskies but this time we were determined to play a consistent and hard match. We paid homage to breast cancer awareness Thursday; the gym was decorated, the players all wore pinks jerseys and our energy was up and excited. It felt good to get that win, as a whole the team played well together.”
At the junior varsity level, the Escalon girls lost to Hilmar in straight sets 19-25, 23-25 and then came back to defeat Hughson 27-25, 23-25, 15-10.
The freshmen won both their games this week, topping Hilmar in three sets and beating Hughson in two. Allie Fiser had 11 kills against Hilmar. Ronni Keo, Kaia Machado and Tehya Pope all had four kills in the Hughson game.
Golf
With just one league match on the schedule, the golf girls also entered an invitational tournament this past week to get in a little extra work.
They took part in the Oct. 7 Merced High Invitational, hosted at Merced Country Club.
“It was a course we’d never been to or played so it was an opportunity to see how the team would do on a course sight unseen,” said coach Chris Casazza.
There were 18 schools participating, and Escalon finished eighth overall. Rose Percey put up a score of 89 to lead the team; Elizabeth Allan had a 97, Genevieve Casazza 107 and Taylor Bruns carded a 128.
The league match was at Ripon Christian on Thursday, Oct 10 at Jack Tone Golf Course in Ripon.
“This was a match that we wanted and needed to win,” said Casazza. “Looking at the scores of past matches, RC had consistently had a team score in the range of 170 to 180 at Jack Tone. This made our team goal easy, we needed to be under 170.”
The team met that goal and got the win, in a close one, 169-172 over Ripon Christian.
Leading the way were Casazza 37, Percey 40, Allan 43 and Samantha Bruns 49.
The girls close out league play this week and take part in the TVL year end 18-hole tournament at Micke Grove Golf Course in Lodi on Monday, Oct. 21.
Meanwhile, about three dozen Escalon cross country runners headed out for a special training day at Santa Cruz on Saturday and, after a roughly seven-mile run along the coastline, also had the opportunity to enjoy some time on the beach. They will go to Hughson for the Supercross event on Saturday morning, Oct. 19.
