Wild ride for Modesto Junior College football team

Their nonleague schedule was rated the most rigorous in Northern California. The quarterback position became a revolving door. The season finished with the solving of a mystery.

If shock value counted for points, the 2014 Modesto Junior College football team would have gone unbeaten.

The Pirates careened through the season like a runaway car on slippery streets. They dropped four of their first five, started a wide receiver (Embry Allen Jr.) at quarterback against City College of San Francisco and set school records on offense.

In the end, the Pirates improved to 4-6 overall and 3-2 for a tie for third place in the Valley Conference. They upset Fresno for the program’s first win over the Rams in 16 seasons, all with a quarterback (Trey Cooper) who wasn’t even on the roster when the season started.

“I haven’t seen anything like it in 40 years of coaching,” head coach Sam Young admitted.

And that’s the short version.

For the second year in a row, the Pirates improved during the season’s second half. Unlike last year, they didn’t qualify for a bowl game. They won’t be a part of Northern California’s first four-team bracket on Saturday that will decide the regional champion and state finalist, which was Modesto’s goal.

“You can’t account for all the injuries at the quarterback position,” Young said. “But once we got a little healthier and stabilized at quarterback, we played at a level as good as any team we’ve had.”

It didn’t start that way. Both quarterback Spencer Thomas (ribs) and tailback Anthony Cota (hip) were stopped by injuries during the season-opening loss to American River. Wide receivers Chris Souza and Zach Moreno also missed time during the early games.

By the first weekend in October, Modesto was beaten by San Francisco, American River and San Mateo, Northern California’s top three ranked teams (combined record of 26-4). The Pirates failed to punch the ball in from the 1, costing them the game against Sacramento, 34-27. They needed a week off after CCSF crushed them 66-29.

Joseph Legerrette-Luke started two games at quarterback but left the team due to a family medical matter. Weeks later during the loss at San Francisco, the Pirates inserted Cooper at quarterback. He rushed for a touchdown.

Misery continued to tug at MJC’s jerseys. A league-opening win at Sequoias was followed by back-to-back home losses, 29-28 to Laney and 35-28 in overtime to Chabot. Those two teams played for the conference title last week, a title which they shared after Chabot’s win.

Looking back, MJC missed a conference title and a berth in the NorCal bracket by eight points.

Little did they know after those difficult losses, however, that the seeds to their late-season rally had been planted. Cota set four school records and became MJC’s career-leading rusher (2,457 yards) and single-season record-holder (1,315 yards this fall). He scored 30 career touchdowns and was called by Young “a-once-in-a-generation running back.”

Cooper made his first start against Laney, and the offense changed on the spot. Cooper, 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, enjoyed charging up the field with the ball in MJC’s up-tempo attack. Better still, he liked colliding with linebackers and linemen and, to the surprise of his teammates, won a few of those matchups.

“He showed what he could do for all of us to see,” Souza said.

Cooper was TeeJay Gordon’s backup in 2013 but wasn’t needed for a single snap. He didn’t show those determined runs in practice last fall and didn’t even rejoin the team until August. Cooper wasn’t eligible to play, in fact, until about midseason. Regardless, he finished with 11 rushing touchdowns and passed for eight.

“We didn’t even know what we had with him,” Young admitted.

With Cota and Cooper and the return of receivers like Souza and Moreno, MJC’s offense took flight. The Pirates’ 49-42 win over Fresno, the first victory over the Rams in Young’s tenure as head coach, also was the first time Modesto had won at Ratcliffe Stadium since 1985.

The Modesto defense, keyed by linemen Jordan Faatiga and Nester Garcia and linebackers Jeremiah Walters and Erik Hernandez, shook off the early-season disappointments.

Modesto’s 73-28 rout of Delta last week, keyed by Cooper’s seven touchdowns – five rushing, two passing – left the Pirates happy if a bit startled. The consensus: Could we have been better if we started faster?

“We were a family the whole way,” Garcia said. “We stuck together through the tough losses. I think that was our statement.”

Young said Cooper played like John Wayne, the iconic actor and hero of countless Hollywood westerns. Cooper didn’t know about Wayne, but he liked the idea when he was informed.

“Then John Wayne it is,” he said.

Cooper and his fellow freshmen build the bridge to 2015.

This story was originally published November 19, 2014 at 9:23 PM with the headline "Wild ride for Modesto Junior College football team."