With local talent, Modesto JC football coasts to season-opening win over Laney
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- Modesto JC opened 2025 with a 40-14 win behind strong local talent and defense.
- Bryson Davis rushed for 213 yards and three touchdowns on nine carries in opener.
- Improved special teams play helped MJC win field position and limit Laney's offense.
A dominant showing has the Modesto Junior College football team sitting at 1-0 after its home opener Saturday against Laney College.
Veteran head coach Rusty Stivers and his team, which is littered with local players, scored 40 straight points against an Eagles outfit under new leadership after the retirement of legendary Bay Area and California JUCO football coach John Beam.
The Pirates’ offense was in midseason form and the defense held Laney scoreless until there were under three minutes left in the game, as MJC coasted to a 40-14 season-opening win.
“We were lights out on defense,” Stivers said. “And I like the o-line and Bryson Davis and our tight ends just pounding the ball.”
For the first time in over half a decade, the Pirates’ signal caller is not a product of local schools. DayDay Tafoya played high school football at Central East of Fresno, played at El Camino College in Torrance and redshirted at Black Hills State in South Dakota before continuing his career in the Central Valley.
After having a three-year quarterback last season in Luke Weaver (Manteca’s East Union), Stivers said Tafoya, a 5-foot-11 dual-threat quarterback, is picking up the offense well in his first season.
He completed nine of 13 passes for 94 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 31 yards on five carries.
“He’s really talented, he can run and he can throw,” Stivers said. “But he’s only known the offense for a short amount of time.”
Stivers says as the season goes on, they will expand the offense as Tafoya continues to get comfortable.
Caden Bailey (Hilmar) led the pirates with three receptions, Max Friedman (Stone Ridge Christian) had a pair of receptions and Kurtis Maynor (Tracy), Darius Doyle (Kimball) Glen Weber (Oakdale) and Xzavier Clark (Ripon) each caught a pass.
Starting running back Davis has breakout game
Bryson Davis graduated from Manteca High in 2024 and after taking a year off from football, picked up where he left off in this year’s season opener.
The sophomore scored the Pirates’ first points on a 47-yard rush on the third play of the game. He rushed for three touchdowns in the first quarter alone, adding another 47-yarder and a 60-yard score. By the end of the first quarter, MJC led 28-0.
Davis finished with 213 rushing yards and three touchdowns on just nine attempts.
“He looks like a man,” Stivers said. “When you look at him, he looks like an NFL running back and he acts like Barry Sanders. He would just tear it up and hand the ball to the official and never say a word. That’s how Bryson is.”
Enochs High graduate Aiden Muhammad also had a rushing touchdown to go along with 84 yards on 16 carries.
Kicking game has improved
MJC has a chance to win the field position battle for the first time in a number of years.
With a strong kicking and punting game, the Pirates’ defense won’t be put in situations where it has to play with a short field. Instead of opposing offenses taking over at their 30- or 40-yard line, they started most of their possessions Saturday at the 20-25.
“Even though we had some turnovers on special teams, our kicking game is improved,” Stivers said. “We kicked the ball in the end zone on kickoffs, and that hasn’t occurred very much in the last few years.”
The Pirates used two kickers, Isaac Padilla from Pitman and Emanuel Garibay from Sonora, for field goals, extra points and kickoffs, and a punter, Logan Martin from Gregori. All three are freshmen.
“It’s the best since I’ve been the head coach,” Stivers said of the kicking production.
A pair of sophomores lead the way
Lebron Stallworth (Ceres) and Weber represented the Pirates at midfield pregame as captains. They were appointed the team’s leaders by the coaching staff because both sophomores exemplified what the staff wanted from its leaders.
Stivers said Stallworth is both a great person and athlete. Weber, the coach said, is a great leader by action. He does all of the little things right.
“They both lead by example,” Stivers said.
Stallworth had five total tackles and a tackle for loss Saturday afternoon, and Weber caught a 15-yard first-quarter touchdown pass to give the Pirates a 21-0 lead.
A player’s goal in coming is to leave
The Pirates were going to have one of the top 1-2 running back punches in the state until one left for a four-year college. Central Catholic product Tyler Jacklich spent this past offseason getting ready to be Davis’ running mate out of the backfield until he picked up an offer from Division I West Virginia University. Jacklich graduated from Central Catholic in 2023, went to Wyoming out of high school, played for Merced College last season and spent the spring and summer at MJC.
“Can you imagine how crazy that would have been?” Stivers said with a smile.
But he understands the game. The goal of going to a junior college for sports is to get to a four-year — even if that means you don’t play a down for your new JUCO team.
Jacklich is one of more than 20 MJC graduates who have Division I experience in Stivers and his coaching staff’s time at MJC. Notable names include Jacob DeJesus, Luke Weaver, Trace Hernandez, Jaelen Nichols, Anderson Grover, Everett Hunter and more. MJC has also sent dozens more to NCAA Division II and NAIA schools.
Pirates are chasing a five-peat
The Pirates are chasing a five-peat but they don’t really talk about it.
They enter 2025 chasing their fifth straight Valley Conference title overall. They have three outright and one co-conference title.
MJC still has four nonconference games before the Valley Conference opener Oct. 11 against Fresno, a game that has usually determined the conference champion and who gets a NorCal playoff bid.
“We don’t talk about anything (in the future) … it doesn’t do us any good, it’s always been like that,” Stivers said. “It’s the old coaching cliche you don’t want to think too far ahead.”
They continue nonconference play with a pair of road games against Santa Rosa and San Mateo. The Pirates return home Sept. 20 against Butte.
