Scoring on their opening drive and rolling to a 21-0 lead, the host Escalon Cougars still had to overcome penalties and a stubborn West Park Panthers team, ultimately winning by a 48-28 decision.

The three-score margin of victory puts Escalon into the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4 finals, where they will face off with the Patterson Tigers on Nov. 24.

Hosting West Park, there was a light mist in the air at game time on Friday night, Nov. 17 and the skies opened up briefly in the first half, but neither team seemed hampered by the weather.

“We really were cruising towards putting this away early,” head coach Andrew Beam said of leading the contest 14-0 after the first quarter and adding another touchdown to go up 21-0 before the Panthers got on the scoreboard. “Credit to West Park for battling.”

The visiting Panthers, coming in as the number five seed in Division 4, defeated the number four seed Placer Hillmen by a 41-38 final on Nov. 10 to get to face the top seeded Cougars. Escalon was coming off a 57-32 victory over number nine seed Sacramento.

West Park won the toss and deferred, putting Escalon on offense first. After a return to the 35-yard line by Jamin Miller on the kickoff, Josh Graham did what he does and rumbled for 11 yards and a first down on the first play from scrimmage. Talan Reider got a carry on the series, making up for some lost yardage on a false start penalty against the Cougars, with Graham doing the heavy lifting and scoring on a 9-yard run with 8:10 to go in the first. The point after attempt by Reider was no good so the Cougars had to settle for a 6-0 lead.

The Escalon defense then held West Park to a three and out and the Cougars took over near midfield on a punt with no return.

Graham and Miller did the running to set up a 9-yard touchdown pass from Donovan Rozevink to Sam Jimenez and Graham took in the 2-point conversion, making it 14-0 Escalon with 1:26 left in the first.

The Panthers kept the ball through the rest of the first quarter and on in to the second but got nothing out of the drive; Escalon countered with a drive that saw Miller pull in an 8-yard pass for the touchdown and the kick good by Reider to make it 21-0 with 7:41 left in the half.

The visitors got on the board with 6:32 left in the half, using a big 56-yard completion to kick start the offense. They scored on a 14-yard rushing play and added the extra point, trimming the lead to 21-7.

Getting the ball back, Escalon ran several minutes off the clock and Miller went in on a 2-yard rushing play, the kick was good and the Cougars looked poised to run away with it, leading 28-7 with 1:14 left in the second.

But the Panthers put their heads down and got to work, ultimately finding the end zone with five seconds left in the half, getting the touchdown and extra point to trail 28-14.

“We started trading scores, we each got 14 points in the second, we each got seven points in the third quarter and we got 14 in the fourth to their seven,” Beam pointed out. “In that first quarter we jumped on them. It was a satisfying win but we know we’ve got to be way better.”

Escalon had some miscues and took too many penalties, the coach said, things they will have to clean up at the Section final if they want to bring home the blue banner.

“The field was beautiful,” Beam added of the playing conditions despite the brief, heavy downpour. “It held up great and the ball didn’t get too wet or too slick on us.”

Getting the ball to start the second half, West Park went on a lengthy scoring drive, and punched the ball in on a short run and added the kick to get to within 28-21 with 7:40 to go in the third.

That seemed to wake up the Cougars, and they went on a drive that resulted in a 5-yard pass from Rozevink to Ryan Lewis for the touchdown; the kick was good and it was a 35-21 lead with 1:26 left in the third.

An early fourth quarter possession by Escalon ended on an interception by West Park, at their own 9-yard line, and the Panthers parlayed that turnover into a touchdown, kick good, to get to within 35-28 early in the fourth.

Graham made it a two-score game again a few minutes later with a 25-yard rush, kick good, putting Escalon up 42-28. A solid defensive stand on the next West Park possession saw Escalon take over at midfield with just over seven minutes left in the game. The drive included a 28-yard catch by Lewis, solid rushes from Graham and a 6-yard run into the end zone by Miller, the kick was no good but it was a 48-28 lead for the home team with 4:56 left to play.

West Park had some completed short passes on what turned out to be their final possession but could not find the end zone and Escalon left the field with win number 601 in school history, still looking for more.

Junior Ryan Lewis had some big catches on the night and was glad to contribute to the victory.

“It felt really good, I’m always trying my best to go and catch the ball when it’s thrown to me,” Lewis said.

Coach Beam said special praise was due for the offensive line, which protected quarterback Rozevink and opened up the holed for the rushing game.

He pointed to the efforts of Ben Lora, Anthony Jones, Dairus Higby, Gio Chavez, Ryan Murphy, Ryan Lewis and Nico Franzia as leading the way. Murphy was the recipient of the Ball-Out Belt for the week.

“It feels great, you love being able to play another week, you love being able to stay alive and love being able to play for a ring, I’ve just got to be there with my boys,” Murphy said in assessing the contest. “We just kept coming back on offense, we had some momentum from our defense getting some big stops; after halftime we really all just came out in a different gear, we kept pounding the ball and they just couldn’t stop us.”

Beam said the offense was led by Josh Graham, 25 carries for 173 yards and two touchdowns plus a two-point conversion; Jamin Miller had 10 carries for 70 yards and two catches for 24 yards, totaling three touchdowns on the night. Ryan Lewis had four catches for 63 yards and a touchdown. Sam Jimenez had a touchdown reception and Donovan Rozevink completed 10-of-15 passes for 127 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.

Defensively, Nate Krieger and Jimenez had five tackles each.

This week, Beam said, the team will be working around the Thanksgiving holiday but will practice every day.

“This is the 18th year in the last 32 that we’ll have been practicing on Thanksgiving,” he said.

The Cougars and Tigers – old foes in the Trans-Valley League prior to Patterson moving due to realignment – will meet at St. Mary’s High School in Stockton for a 7 p.m. kickoff in the Section 4 title game on Friday, Nov. 24.