CCC Football Preview: Patterson looks to defend league title with youth, chemistry
Stanislaus District football teams went all out last season. There were seven league champions, 16 teams earning playoff spots, three section champions, two runners up and one Northern California Champion from this area. It might be hard to top the success we saw last year, but the beauty of sports is every team is going to try.
The Bee will preview each league highlighting last season’s league winner along with notes on what to expect from teams this season.
Two of the three Central Conference teams that made the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs advanced. League champion Patterson won its first two postseason games but fell to Oakdale in the Division III semifinal. Runner-up Merced went through its half of the Division IV bracket, including beating Kimball 51-50, to advance to the championship. While neither team brought the league a blue banner, there are schools in the CCC with returners who are looking to put the section on notice.
2021 CCC Standings
Team (Overall record, League record)
Patterson (10-3, 6-0)
Merced (9-4, 5-1)
Golden Valley (4-6, 3-2)
Atwater (3-7, 3-3)
Buhach Colony (2-7, 2-3)
Central Valley (4-6, 1-5)
El Capitan (0-10, 0-6)
Patterson High has a numbers problem, but not in a bad way.
When the dead period ended and the Tigers took the field for their first of week official practice, coach Rob Cozart had 53 players lacing their cleats on the varsity side of the field. Most had equipment from last year, but a very small number of returners didn’t. The locker room has only 50 lockers.
After the first week, Cozart and his staff made “preliminary cuts” and are looking to get the roster down to about 40.
The Tigers welcomed a lot of incoming sophomores and even some freshmen to varsity after losing 20 from last year’s team. Some notable names from those 20 are quarterback Jacob Guevarra, receiver Jaydrian Lawson and lineman Marcus Simien, who is playing at Fresno State this season.
Last year’s team won 10 straight games and will bring back running back duo Lolo Mataele and Sean Hansen Jr., who combined for 2,222 yards. The Tigers also feature younger and “more athletic” offensive and defensive lines.
“We may have dropped a little bit in size, but we made up for it in athleticism,” said Cozart. “The good thing is we have 2,000 yards-plus coming back with the running backs and then you add Jeremiah Lugo. I would put our backfield up against anybody in the area.”
The sophomore class is large and the guys have grown up playing together on the city’s youth teams. The Tigers are hoping the added chemistry and offseason workouts will make up for some of the youthful mistakes they might make early on.
“We’re definitely going to use their experiences playing together going through the ranks … as an advantage,” Cozart said. “This is probably our best offseason that we’ve ever done … it’s been a few years since we actually had a solid offseason. They really put in the work and they’re excited about it.”
The Tigers are hungry. Returning players and coaches remember the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III semifinals loss to Oakdale. Younger players who played junior varsity last season remember losses to Hilmar and Manteca. That drives them. The Tigers open the season with the Yellowjackets and Buffaloes and for a team that has the goal of “playing 12 games” every season, playoff success is the end goal.
“They’re hungry, it’s just a group that is ready to go.” Cozart said.
CCC Notes
Central Valley’s “smooth” transition
The Hawks are making an offensive change this season with a new offensive coordinator. Traditionally, a new coach comes with a whole new offense, and this situation is no different. Coach Derrick Goblirsch described last season’s offense as a shotgun/Wing-T offense. According to MaxPreps, Central Valley finished with 1,690 yards rushing and 821 passing. In 2022, it’s switching to a spread offense that is traditionally more pass heavy.
“We’ve kept it pretty basic for the beginning, letting the kids get a grasp on it before we dig too deep into it,” said Goblirsch. “So far, it’s been pretty smooth and the kids seem to like it and they’re having fun so I’m excited about it.
“We ended up changing it to more of a spread style because we felt like we had more receiver type kids. We have a quarterback who we were pretty confident could pick it up easily and he’s picked it up really well.”
The Hawks are hoping a new offense is one of a few things that change this season. Another is injuries. After starting 3-0, key players went down in their next two games. They didn’t win again until the last league game of the season.
“Injuries that we had hurt us big time,” Goblirsch said. “Those were some of our biggest and strongest kids. ... Staying healthy is the number one key thing (this year), but also just being physical.”
Turnaround for Buhach?
If the Thunder are going to improve on last year’s 2-7 record, there’s a good chance senior Jaxson Percoats will have a lot to do with it. He is the top returner in the run game after producing 517 yards and a team-high six touchdowns last year. He also contributed 154 receiving yards and one touchdown.
He won’t be alone as Buhach Colony has a number of returners, including receiver Kailin Frade and most of last season’s offensive line.
The extra year of experience usually does teams good and after a whole offseason of working out together chemistry will help the Thunder push for their first playoff appearance since going 11-1 and 6-0 in the CCC in 2019.
