Down 14-7 at halftime, the Escalon varsity Cougars did not give up a point in the second half.
And they scored 16 unanswered points of their own on the road at Ripon, getting a crucial Trans-Valley League win against the rival Indians on Friday, Oct. 25.
“It’s a tough place to play and we thought it would be low scoring,” head coach Andrew Beam said of the contest. “It was a frustrating first half on both offense and defense for us, we were not playing to our potential.”
Ripon had two methodical drives in the first half, taking a 7-0 lead, seeing Escalon tie it up, then taking the lead back heading into the locker room.
Escalon won the toss and deferred; Ripon parlayed that opening kickoff into a 20-yard pass play for the touchdown at the end of a long drive, adding the extra point to go up 7-0 with 7:51 to play in the first quarter.
Escalon was able to knot the score with some big runs by Carson Medina and Chase Cummings on their drive, along with quarterback Logan Huebner picking up some tough yards on scrambles. They found the end zone with just over two minutes left in the first quarter, Huebner connecting with Cummings on a 19-yard pass play, the point after good by Ricardo Chavez to make it 7-7.
A rushing touchdown by Ripon with 6:51 to go in the second quarter, kick good, gave the home team a 14-7 lead.
But they wouldn’t get any more points in the contest while Escalon started finding ways to get points on the board in the second half.
“I told them we had to be better,” Beam said of the talk in the locker room at halftime. “There were multiple coaches that got after them, we told them they needed to wake up.”
With the Cougars looking for their fourth win – and a trip to the playoffs – it wasn’t a stretch to say the season was literally on the line. They responded to the halftime talk and handled the Indians the rest of the way.
“The defense held Ripon to 46 yards in the second half,” Beam said. “They woke up; they answered the bell.”
Offensively, the Cougars also had a patented Escalon drive, getting the ball to start the second half and taking the kickoff down the field, punching it in to tie the game 14-14. Ben Gonzalez broke free for a couple of good gains on the drive, while Cummings had another solid catch before Medina got into the end zone on a five-yard rushing play. Chavez added the kick, it was a tie game with 6:57 to play in the third.
The teams traded possessions and Ripon then took a couple of personal foul penalties that aided a Cougar drive.
They converted early in the fourth, with Chavez hitting a 32-yard field goal to put Escalon up 17-14 with 11:43 to play in the game.
As the contest wore on, Ripon looked poised to go on a march down the field for the potential game winning score, but Escalon’s defense came through in a big way. Ryan Lewis forced a fumble, recovered by Daniel Marrufo, to stop that drive. Escalon, however, gave the ball back after being stopped on a fourth down play, but Ripon couldn’t make much headway either, and Escalon took over on downs with just under two minutes to go.
Huebner took the ball in on a quarterback sneak from a yard out on that final drive and though the point after attempt was blocked, Escalon had the 23-14 lead and that was the score when the horn sounded to end the game.
“That field goal was a major difference; they were chasing those points,” Beam said of Chavez hitting his first field goal of the season to start the fourth quarter. “That field goal was a real momentum boost.”
The coach also pointed to the first touchdown pass of the game to Cummings as a kick starter for both his game and that of Huebner, as the two worked well together throughout the night.
“Huebner was nine-for-14 for 73 yards, one touchdown and one interception, and he also had 12 carries for 54 yards and a touchdown,” Beam said.
Medina had 17 carries for 72 yards and a touchdown; Gonzalez had four carries for 63 yards, three of the carries going for first downs.
Cummings was the leading receiver, five catches for 47 yards and a touchdown.
“Linebackers Alex Jones and Daniel Marrufo had great games, Alex had eight tackles and Marrufo had five,” Beam said.
Dominic Arauza had six tackles at his safety position, Luca Cerasi got high marks for his efforts at corner, with five tackles and a couple of pass break ups.
Ryan Lewis had seven tackles, one pass break up and one forced fumble.
“I can’t say enough about coach (Brandon) Hoover and the rest of the defensive staff,” Beam said of the keys to the contest.
Escalon had 202 yards rushing and 73 yards passing for 275 total yards; Ripon had 240 yards on the game.
The Indians also lost their composure a couple of times, hurting themselves in the process.
Meanwhile, Beam said he was pleased to see his players staying composed for the most part during the game.
“Keeping your head, keeping your cool, that takes some restraint and I thought our guys did a good job,” Beam said. “It’s a rivalry game, it’s going to be competitive, physical and tough but our kids answered the challenge.”
Escalon will host Orestimba on Friday, Nov. 1 in the regular season finale with kickoff at 7 p.m.
