Enochs earns emotional victory with dramatic comeback over Buhach Colony
The night began and ended for the Enochs High football team, its coaches and fans with thoughts of their late former athletic director and basketball coach, Randy Rubio.
In between, the Eagles played with heart and capped the emotional night with a stunning come-from-behind 35-29 victory over Buhach Colony at Johansen High School.
Mr. Rubio, also a popular math teacher, died unexpectedly earlier in the week.
““It was a very emotional week for many of our players,” Enochs coach Tracey Traub said late Friday night. “Several of our players took a day off of practice dealing with the news. A lot of these kids had played basketball in his programs. He impacted their lives in a big way.”
The Eagles appeared headed for defeat, down 29-27 with about three minutes left when a Buhach Colony (0-2) botched exchange on a handoff was scooped up by Abayomi Babalola, who ran about 60 yards for the eventual winning score.
Buhach Colony led at halftime 14-13 as Jaxson Percoats scored on a 15-yard run and Payton Johnson added an 84-yard kickoff return for the Thunder (0-2). Percoats added a second touchdown in the second half.
However, Enochs relied on Babalola’s touchdown, a Keith Orona-to-Kola Babalola roughly 35-yard scoring hookup and a long kickoff return for a touchdown by Gabriel Luna.
That the Eagles left the field with a victory after a trying week was a testament to Traub and his team.
The game opened with a moment of silence for Rubio before the national anthem. After the game, the tears began to flow, Traub said.
“I encouraged them (ahead of the game) that coach Rubio was a competitor,” Traub said. “In his honor, I told them to work all week long so we can compete on Friday night. I reminded them of the memory and to honor his name by going out there and begin successful. ...
“They played with heart and they never gave up. Even when we got down, they never gave up.”
The Eagles will try to improve to 3-0 next week when they travel to Ceres to face Central Valley (3-0), which beat Ceres 20-18 on Friday.
Buhach Colony will host a talented Lincoln of Stockton team.
Orestimba 20, Los Banos 19 — The Tigers scored a touchdown on the final play of the game as Adam Herrera connected with Josh McAndrew for an 8-yard touchdown as time expired.
Los Banos head coach Dustin Caropreso opted to go for the two-point conversion and the win, but Herrera’s pass was deflected.
“I just felt there was no time left on the clock, we had our back-up kicker kicking — not to say he couldn’t make it — but I didn’t want to put it on his shoulders,” Caropreso said. “I thought we had a good play drawn up but they did a good job countering it.”
Herrera also had a 28-yard touchdown run for Los Banos (0-3).
Orestimba quarterback Alex Millan threw two long touchdown passes in the first quarter. Devin Bettencourt came in after Millan left with an injury and threw a 77-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Vargas that gave Orestimba (2-1) the 20-13 lead with 6:17 left in the fourth quarter.
Gregori 34, Atwater 28 — The Falcons (0-3) pulled within six points with about one minute left, but couldn’t recover the onside kick. Jame Thomas and Bo Valladao scored rushing touchdowns for Atwater and Valladao connected with Cameron Frazier and Colin Williams for touchdown passes.
Livingston 47, Amador 0 — The Wolves dominated from start to finish as they improved to 2-1 this season. Carlos Baez rushed for 182 yards and three touchdowns on six carries for the Wolves. He also hauled in a 16-yard touchdown pass. Rocklin Baptista completed 10 of 16 passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns.
Grace Davis 58, El Capitan 20 — Spartans running back Isaac Martinez rushed for four touchdowns, including runs of 70, 64 and 53 yards as Grace Davis improved to 3-0 on the season.
Gauchos quarterback Carter Haugen connected with Derrick Harris on two touchdown passes.
El Capitan dropped to 0-3 this season.
McLane 33, Le Grand 22 — The Bulldogs had to find a last-minute opponent after Tranquillity canceled late in the week.
The Bulldogs rallied with two third-quarter touchdowns to cut a 20-point halftime deficit to 20-14, but McLane pulled away in the fourth quarter.
Louie Aguallo scored two rushing touchdowns for the Bulldogs (1-2).
Stone Ridge Christian 18, Mariposa 16 — Knights quarterback Noah Lund rushed for two touchdowns as Stone Ridge Christian picked up their first victory of the season.
SRC’s Hector Esquivez finished with 100 yards rushing on 22 carries.
Mikah Millikan had a big interception on defense for the Knights. The SRC defense with junior Michael Vander Woude
Pacheco 16, Sierra 2 (Thursday) — Amari Grace and Jedidiah De La Torre both scored rushing touchdowns as the Panthers picked up their first win of the season.
This story was originally published September 4, 2021 at 12:53 AM.
