Roundup: Poor air quality affects Stanislaus District’s Friday night football games
A number of Stanislaus District football games were canceled at the last minute Friday night due to unhealthy air quality as a result of nearby wildfires. Two games initially rescheduled for Saturday morning were called off when conditions did not improve.
High school sports can’t be played if the Air Quality Index reads above 150.
The cancellations added to this week’s chaos as games have been canceled or opponents changed due to COVID-19 contact tracing and positive results.
Here is a list of the games that were been affected by air quality:
- Clayton Valley at Turlock. The Ugly Eagles — yes, that’s their nickname — were making the 2-hour bus drive from Concord only to have the game canceled. The varsity game was scheduled to be played Saturday at 10 a.m. but that was called off early Saturday morning. It has now been rescheduled for Monday.
- All Modesto City Schools games were canceled, including: Beyer at Modesto; Lincoln at Downey; and Enochs at West. Davis at Chavez (Stockton) was canceled; the Spartans were looking for an opponent to play on Saturday. Gregori at Merced was postponed and may be played on Monday.
- Hilmar’s game at Los Banos was moved to Monday night.
- Ripon vs Sonora has been moved to Saturday at Ripon High School. Kickoff times are 2 p.m. (frosh), 4 p.m. (JV) and 6 p.m. (varsity)
- Central Valley at Pacheco has been rescheduled for Saturday at Pacheco. Kickoff scheduled for 5 p.m. (JV) and 7 p.m. (varsity).
- Central Catholic had its home game against St. Francis of Mountain View postponed. The two teams were going to try to play Saturday at 11 a.m. but the game was canceled Saturday morning.
Oakdale’s scheduled game against Edison of Stockon and Pitman’s scheduled game against Lincoln of Stockton were both canceled due to COVID-19 precautions earlier in the week.
Here are results from the few games that were actually played Friday night:
Escalon 41, Calaveras 0 — The game was moved to Escalon and the Cougars cruised to a win and improved to 2-0. Calaveras fell to 1-1. Escalon had 482 total yards compared to Calaveras’ 72. Cougars quarterback Donovan Rosevink threw four touchdown passes, including two to EJ Lewis. Matthew Baptista rushed for 111 yards and two TDs on 6 carries. He also had an interception.
Hughson 37, Orestimba 6 — The Huskies (2-0) continued their hot start to the season with a commanding victory over the Wildcats. Hughson has outscored its two opponents 86-6.
Manteca 44, Patterson 17 — Blake Nichelson ran for three TDs as the Buffaloes (2-0) rolled past the Tigers, who fell to 0-2 on the season.
Sacramento 35, Ripon Christian 7 — Derek Van Elderen’s 71-yard TD run was the lone highlight for the Knights.
This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 4:56 PM.
