Wes Burford leads the way as Oakdale beats Escalon in a nonleague showdown
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wes Burford led Oakdale with 352 rushing yards, two TDs and key late plays.
- Escalon played shorthanded but stayed competitive behind quarterback Huebner.
- Oakdale rebounded from an opening loss with back-to-back wins and renewed focus.
Wes Burford loves everything about football.
While onlookers in the Corral marvel at his feats — running through would-be tacklers and making plays on defense and special teams — Burford thinks what makes the game beautiful is the environment. He credits the backups, those who come in for him on occasion with little to no drop-off and who don’t get all of the attention.
“The game of football, it’s something else,” the senior Air Force commit said. “Coming under the lights with the band playing, student section, the crowd, it’s Friday night lights. If you don’t want to play for that, I don’t know what else you’d want to play for. I love playing for Oakdale and my community.”
But he lives for the on-the-field stuff, too. Anyone watching the final six minutes of Oakdale’s game against Escalon Friday night saw that.
Oakdale was leading 21-13 but Escalon was looking to put together a drive. The Cougars picked up a first down, but after that, Burford and the Mustangs’ defense buckled down. They forced Escalon into a third-and-medium and Burford made his mark. A third-down sack backed up Escalon six yards, to its own 15-yard line, forcing a punt. One play later, Burford broke through the middle for a 58-yard score to put Oakdale ahead two scores.
His job wasn’t done.
On Escalon’s last possession of the game, he was part one of a gang of Mustangs in on a tackle, forcing a turnover on downs. And on Oakdale’s last possession, he lined up as the team’s punter and gained the game’s final first down on a fake punt to ice the win.
You’ve heard it before and you’ll probably hear it again. And then again before the season ends.
Wes Burford is special.
“Any time I can be on the field, I want to be on the field,” he said.
The rare time he does leave the field, he grabs a drink from the Gatorade bottle his dad, former NFL quarterback Seth, has in one of the pockets of his cargo shorts. It’s a mixture of fluids and electrolytes to help minimize cramps. Because the only thing that can take him off the field for more than one play is a poorly timed cramp.
He doesn’t come out in practice or in games. He missed only a handful of plays in Oakdale’s 27-13 win over rival Escalon.
“No, we’ve got to take him out,” Oakdale coach Garrett Martin said when asked if Burford ever volunteers to take a break.
Chase Lopez and Richard Flores also rushed for touchdowns, but when Martin saw Escalon keying on the other two running backs, trying to shut down the big runs on the outside, he gave the ball to his star and he delivered.
Burford rushed for 352 yards and two touchdowns on 38 carries.
“We just leaned on Wes a lot because we saw that when we ran the ball with him, we were getting three or four yards,” Martin said.
Injuries hurt Escalon again
Just like in 2024, the injury bug took a bite out of the Cougars. Only this year, it might be worse.
Escalon went into the game without three two-way starters who were injured last week against Chavez. That made an already inexperienced team even younger, going against a senior-heavy Oakdale.
Friday night, starting five sophomores and a freshman, the Cougars gave the Mustangs a fight.
Twice, they kept it competitive thanks to connections from quarterback Logan Huebner to receiver Chase Cummings. In the first quarter, they made it a 7-7 game with a 26-yard connection and a 17-yard pitch-and-catch 17 seconds before halftime cut Oakdale’s lead to 21-13. Defensively, Escalon played its best in the second half. Dylan Ball forced a fumble that was recovered by Conner McDowell.
But by the fourth quarter, inexperience and the Mustangs’ physicality were too much.
The Cougars were held scoreless in the second half when they punted twice and had a turnover on downs in their three possessions.
But head coach Andrew Beam was pleased with how the team played, given the circumstances. Escalon held Oakdale scoreless in the third quarter and made a statement on the first drive of the second half, when Ball forced a fumble inside its 10-yard line to end an eight-plus-minute Oakdale drive. Escalon was just a few plays away from turning the momentum of the game in its favor.
“I’ll be honest, I was happy with the way they competed,” Beam said. “You know, Oakdale being that senior heavy is often physical. And I thought our guys stayed in there. Defense got us those two stops we needed in the second half, but the offense couldn’t capitalize.”
Oakdale building off two straight wins
Oakdale looks to build on its new momentum.
After an effort in the season opener against Sonora that Burford and Martin acknowledge was below their standards, the Mustangs have responded with back-to-back wins. They went back to the basics.
“We went back to focusing on physicality,” Martin said. “Our mantra the past two weeks has been just get four yards, just get four yards. We talked about after that game that too many of us, including me, were looking for the big play all the time instead of doing what we’re good at. You get four yards and then sometimes it turns into 60.”
Last week. Oakdale scored 52 points at halftime en route to a 70-30 win over Lincoln of Stockton. The 70 points are still the second-most scored by one team through the first three Fridays of the season behind, ironically, that same Lincoln team, which scored 72 Week 1 against McNair.
In 2024, a loss against Sonora was what the Mustangs needed to get their act together. After falling to the Wildcats, they rattled off six straight wins, finished third in the Valley Oak League and made a section title game appearance.
“They came out and they beat us, fair and square,” Burford said of this season’s Week 1 loss. “In a way, I look at it as a blessing because we can only build up from there. It’s not gonna really have any effect on our playoff season. Towards the end of the season we’ve got some very good teams coming up that we need to beat and we can finish the season on top and hopefully win the Valley Oak League and then our road to state begins. That’s what we’re looking for.”
This story was originally published September 6, 2025 at 8:40 AM.
