Hilmar remains unbeaten after handing Modesto its first loss of the season
It’s a play Hilmar works on at practice where quarterback Cameron Moak throws the ball high for receiver Derek Taylor to go and pull it down.
Why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of a 6-foot-7 wide receiver?
The practice reps paid off on Saturday night as Taylor out-jumped two Modesto defensive backs and came down with a pass. Taylor then raced 64 yards for a touchdown to cap a near perfect first half for the Yellowjackets, who raced out to a 40-0 lead at intermission.
Hilmar rested its starters for the second half and the fourth quarter was played with a running clock as the Yellowjackets improved to 3-0 on the season with a 40-6 win over the Panthers at McSweeney Stadium.
“Our quarterback has faith in me,” said Taylor, about the late first-half touchdown. “He has faith that I’ll go up and get it. We practice that play. It’s nice to do it in the game.”
Taylor returned to the field after missing last week’s game against Los Banos after testing positive for COVID-19.
Without much practice time during the week, Taylor hauled in three catches for 91 yards and two touchdowns. He now has five touchdown catches on the season.
“He’s special,” said Modesto coach Dylan Miller, whose team dropped to 2-1. “They have a couple guys outside that are tough to match up against.”
The Panthers came into the matchup undefeated after wins over Johansen and Beyer to open the season.
Hilmar was a little too much to handle.
Miller told his players after the game, “We earned this feeling right here.”
“Lesson learned,” Miller said. “We feel we’re a better team than we showed tonight. We have the next few weeks to prove it. Against an established program like Hilmar, if you don’t come out ready you’re going to suffer a loss like we did.”
The game started out strong for Modesto as Eli McCabe completed back-to-back passes to receiver Heston Blom (four catches for 132 yards and a touchdown) for 55 and 20 yards to move the Panthers inside the Yellowjackets’ 10-yard line.
However, it was all Hilmar after that.
The Yellowjackets forced Modesto to turn the ball over on downs and the Hilmar offense marched 97 yards on just seven plays as Cannon Irelan hauled in a 30-yard touchdown pass from Moak to give Hilmar a 6-0 lead with 7:59 left in the first quarter.
The Yellowjackets defense created a short field on their next possession and Broc Perry broke free for a 25-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 13-0.
Before the Panthers could catcher their breath, Hilmar scored a third touchdown on a 10-yard run by Luis Vargas and it was 20-0 with 2:36 left in the first quarter.
Hilmar tacked on three more second-quarter touchdowns, including the two touchdown catches by Taylor.
Moak completed 6 of 8 passes for 117 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. Perry had 72 rushing yards on six carries.
The Hilmar defense even contributed a touchdown when linebacker Blake Westmoreland pounced on a fumbled snap by Modesto in the end zone.
At 3-0, Yellowjackets head coach Frank Marques likes how his team is playing this early in the season. Especially with Ripon and Escalon waiting for Hilmar in the first two weeks of Trans-Valley League play in a few weeks.
“We’re getting a lot of young guys playing time,” Marques said. “It’s important that they get this experience before we get to TVL play because we have Ripon and Escalon in our first two league games.”
This story was originally published September 4, 2021 at 11:16 PM.
