Late drive helps Escalon pull away from Calaveras
Both Escalon High and Calaveras played their season openers in Week 0 against faster, deeper opponents. Much of their nights was spent trying to keep up with Patterson and McNair, respectively.
On Friday night, the two teams got back to playing their kind of football. Escalon was just a little bit better.
The Cougars grounded out a 14-6 victory over the Redskins in a battle of small-school powerhouses.
“Both teams were in culture shock last week, watching all that speed,” Escalon coach Mark Loureiro said. “This game probably looked slow to both teams.”
Neither Escalon nor Calaveras could keep up with the speed of their Week 0 opponents.
“You won’t see that anywhere in our division,” Calaveras coach Jason Weatherby said.
Friday’s performances bode well for the future of each team, with the Cougars (1-1) among the favorites in the Trans Valley League and the Redskins (0-2) poised to challenge Sonora in the Mother Lode League.
“This is our style of football and that’s their style of ball. (It was) a test of strength,” Loureiro said.
In a physical, small-school game, where both teams feature many players that play on both offense and defense, the Cougars were a little stronger and played a clear game.
Calaveras committed nine penalties, many of them at critical times.
“They just killed us,” Weatherby said.
It shows a lack of discipline. We have to practice harder with a faster pace and more discipline.
Calaveras coach Jason Weatherby
The two teams traded touchdowns in the first half, with Calaveras missing its extra point. After a scoreless third quarter, Escalon led 7-6 midway through the fourth quarter.
Calaveras moved the ball to the Cougars’ 30-yard line but penalties backed the Redskins up to their own 49-yard line. On third down and 26 yards, Escalon’s C.J. Gumbs intercepted a pass and Escalon took over the ball at its own 39.
The Cougars then marched down on a long drive and put the game away with a 10-yard touchdown run by Hunter Calton.
It was our style of football that last drive ... like 10-, 12-play, 60-something yard drive, you keep them off the field, and that’s Escalon football right there.
Escalon coach Mark Loureiro
The Calaveras offense, which scored on its opening possession on a 4-yard run by Anthony Giangregorio (72 yards on 15 carries), never really came close to scoring after that.
The Redskins had one last chance in the final seconds, but quarterback Dylan Byrd’s desperation pass was caught by Giangregorio at the Escalon 5-yard line and he was tackled as time expired.
Escalon’s all-TVL lineman, Bo Capps, said it felt good to close out the win with the long TD drive in the fourth quarter.
“We put together that six-minute drive,” Capps said. “All that work that we put in over the summer paid off.”
Capps said playing against Patterson’s no-huddle offense the previous week had taken its toll on the Cougars. “There were no breaks,” Capps said.
A week’s rest and a different opponent made things easier this week. The Cougars, who play this week at Bret Harte, ran the ball 40 times for 161 yards.
Escalon also got a good game from junior quarterback Dylan Azevedo, who was an efficient 8-for-10 for 68 yards and a nice TD pass to tight end Dustin Lawrence in the second quarter.
“We were soft ... we were asleep last week at Patterson,” Azevedo said. “Today we just woke up ... because we’re playing for our home fans.”
Jim Silva: 209-578-2279, jsilva@modbee.com, @mission26point2
This story was originally published September 4, 2015 at 11:49 PM with the headline "Late drive helps Escalon pull away from Calaveras."