Enochs uses second-half surge to overcome Modesto. Are playoffs next?
The Enochs High football team is not done yet. Or is it?
The Eagles thought they earned their way into the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs with a wild 63-38 victory over Modesto in a Central California Athletic League game Friday night at Johansen High. But they won’t find out for sure until Sunday afternoon.
Senior quarterback Adam Ammar passed for three touchdowns and ran for three more as Enochs reached the four-win threshold that makes it eligible for the postseason.
“This week we had to focus on, ‘We have to finish,’” Enochs coach Tracey Traub said. “We’ve had several games where we were right there, just didn’t quite finish. So, that was our whole focus this week.
“The first half we weren’t finishing, so at halftime, we went in and made some adjustments ... so we came out in the second half and executed much better, finished drives, finished plays.”
The Eagles (4-6 overall, 2-3 CCAL) will learn their playoff fate Sunday afternoon, when the section announces its pairings.
In its Oct. 23 playoff projections, MaxPreps predicted Enochs would get the 11th seed in Division I and travel to sixth-seeded Elk Grove to face the Thundering Herd (7-3, 6-0), the champion of the Delta League.
On Saturday afternoon, however, Maxpreps had the Eagles were on the outside looking in. Perhaps it was because the Eagles had a tough time defeating Modesto, which finished the season 2-9.
The Panthers took a two-point lead, 23-21, early in the third quarter before the Eagles’ offense exploded for 42 second-half points, including 28 in the fourth quarter.
Ammar ran for three consecutive touchdowns — two from 17 yards out and then a 32-yarder — to give the Eagles a 41-23 lead early in the fourth quarter.
“At halftime we had a talk with the team, kind of talking to each other,” Ammar said. “We said, ‘We’ve got to get our heads into it, put our minds together and work as a team.’ So we did that. We came out and executed ... the scoreboard shows that, and we came out with a win.”
Ammar finished with 129 yards rushing and 149 passing, but he wasn’t a one-man show.
Junior running backs Aiden Muhammad and Logan Edwards also had big nights. Muhammad ran 18 times for 145 yards and a touchdown, while Edwards had two TD runs and caught a pass from Ammar for a score.
It’s that three-pronged offensive attack — and a better defensive effort in the second half — that gives Traub hope of pulling off an upset in the playoffs.
“Two years in a row now we’re going to the playoffs after about an 11-year stretch of not,” Traub said. “It means a lot to them, these seniors. We’re facing a giant next week, they’ve got us slated for Elk Grove. So we know we have our hands full.
“But last year we had our hands full with Del Oro and we went 28-21. So, any given day, any given team.”
Tough loss for Modesto
Modesto ended its season 2-9 overall and 0-5 in the CCAL. But the Panthers put up a gutsy fight in the season finale that coach Dylan Miller hopes can carry over to next season.
Senior quarterback Eli McCabe had a nice night, passing for 312 yards and two touchdowns on 33 attempts.
Modesto was in the game until the very end.
Down by 11 points, 49-38, McCabe led the Panthers to the Enochs 16-yard line with about six minutes to play, but his pass was tipped and then intercepted by Muhammad.
A few plays later Ammar launched a long pass to Skyler McCauley, who ran the rest of the way for an 84-yard touchdown. Enochs got the ball back on another interception, and Edwards’ 21-yard touchdown run with 2 minutes left made it 63-38.
Miller said he was proud of his team’s effort.
“It was the last game of the season, we wanted to send our seniors out right,” Miller said. “We didn’t have the on-field success that we wanted this year, but we did make progress and hopefully that’s a step in the right direction.“
This story was originally published October 29, 2022 at 12:09 AM.
