MJC football turns season around, keeps postseason hopes alive
The 2022 football season didn’t start the way Modesto Junior College coach Rusty Stivers and his team expected.
The Pirates opened the season with a 1-4 nonconference record and along the way lost two quarterbacks to injuries. In the same game.
In a road contest against College of San Mateo, starting quarterback Luke Weaver dislocated his hip and backup Marcus Ordunez tore his labrum. Both will miss the rest of the season.
The Pirates (4-4, 3-0) played four quarterbacks this season, a first in Stivers’ coaching career.
Finding stability at quarterback was a process.
Cruz Marines (Gregori) got his first start the next game against Butte, and Keith Orona (Enochs) was promoted from ball boy to backup after removing his gray shirt that same week.
Against American River College, it was Orona’s turn. With just a week and a half of practice, he got the start in a one-point loss.
“Usually kids have six months to a year to prep, and Keith only had a week or two,” Stivers said. “We tried to put a lot of stress on him at practice, and sometimes it was unfair stress. I told him that I was the opponent or I was the official or I was the crowd … and you’re gonna have to respond. He’s done a good job.”
As the offense found its groove, the defense followed.
In Valley Conference play, the Pirates have allowed five points a game, which has led to three straight wins over Sacramento City, Contra Costa and Reedley.
All season, the coaching staff has pointed at the linebackers as the heartbeat of the defense. Oakdale graduates Cam Snow and Peyton Bradford lead a position group so deep it has a defensive lineup with mostly linebackers and at times has some playing on the defensive line and defensive backfield in other packages.
“Steady and consistent,” Stivers said of the group. “They don’t get too high, don’t get too low. The whole time they’re even-keeled.”
The team took on the persona of its leaders.
“You couldn’t tell when we are at our lowest low or at our highest high. Everything with the kids is the same.”
At 4-4, the Pirates are in a must-win position.
Two final conference games – a home contest against College of the Sequoias on Saturday and a road matchup with Fresno City next week – determine their postseason fate.
If the Pirates win the Valley Conference, they earn a trip to the state playoffs.
The conference title came down to a matchup last season with Fresno, and that is looking like the case this year as well.
If they don’t win the conference, they have to win five games to be eligible for a bowl game.
A spot at the postseason is a complete 180 from where things were to begin the year.
“The easiest thing to do in life is to point the finger, and so we asked everybody in the program to point the finger at themselves to say, ‘What can you do to help?’” Stivers said.
This story was originally published November 1, 2022 at 1:53 PM.
