Escalon defense shines early before holding off late comeback from Golden Valley
The Escalon High School football team may go through some growing pains as the Cougars ask players to step into new roles this season.
One player who knows his role is senior quarterback Donovan Rozevink.
The third-year starter threw three touchdown passes to lead Escalon to a 20-14 win over Golden Valley in the season opener for both teams on Friday night at Veterans Stadium in Merced.
“(Rozevink) can do a lot of things and when stuff is not going perfect, he can improvise,” Escalon coach Andrew Beam said. “He can command the huddle and that’s huge especially when we’re filling in a lot of spots around him.”
Escalon graduated a big chunk of its offense in running backs Ryker Peters, Logan Anderson and receiver Owen Nash from last year’s state championship team.
Escalon’s defense led the way on Friday night, posting a shutout until Golden Valley came up with two touchdowns in the final 1 minute, 21 seconds.
“Defensively, I liked our energy, the way we flew around,” Beam said.
Escalon held Golden Valley scoreless in the first half despite GV starting three drives in Escalon territory.
Meanwhile, the Escalon offense put together two scoring drives in the first half with Rozevink finding Sam Jimenez for an 18-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter and connecting with Jamin Miller for an 18-yard touchdown in the final minute of the second quarter to take a 12-0 lead into the half.
Jimenez hauled in a second touchdown on a 4-yard pass from Rozevink late in the third quarter to extend the lead to 18-0. An Escalon safety pushed the lead to 20-0 with 9:13 left in the game.
Golden Valley made things interesting late as Escalon fumbled twice in the fourth quarter and GV recovered an onside kick.
“We had dumb penalties the whole game,” Rozevink said. “We fumbled the ball three times... We just had dumb mistakes, dumb penalties.”
Senior receiver Jonah White accounted for most of the Golden Valley offense, catching seven passes for 104 yards and a touchdown.
White lined up at quarterback and scored on a 3-yard run to cut the Escalon lead to 20-6 with 1:21 left.
Golden Valley’s Shaun Stover recovered the ensuing onside kick, which led to a 19-yard touchdown pass from Austin Mello to White. Golden Valley punched in the two-point conversion to pull within 20-14 with 54 seconds left.
Escalon was able to recover the next onside kick attempt and ran out the clock for the victory.
Beam says Escalon still needs to figure out its identity. The team had to overcome turnovers, penalties and a lot of mistakes.
“A lot to improve upon, that’s for sure,” Beam said. “A lot of question marks still, a lot of self-inflicted errors, three turnovers and some bad penalties. We’ve got to clean up a lot of things because the road gets a whole lot tougher next week five, six weeks.”
Golden Valley coach Rick Martinez liked the way his team stuck with it until the end.
“I think we grew a bit tonight,” Martinez said. “Escalon is a storied program. They’re physical, all those guys have played together since they were in fifth grade. That’s why I wanted to schedule this game. I wanted to see how our kids would react. I thought it was a good test for us.”
Golden Valley will host Madera South at Veterans Stadium next week. Escalon will travel to Buchanan High in Clovis.
This story was originally published August 19, 2023 at 12:03 AM.
